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I report ob the activities of the 
Office of'War Information in the 
European Theatre of Operations 
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OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT 


AMERICAN EMBASSY 
LONDON 

April 18, 1945 


Mr. Elmer Davis, Director 
Office of War Information 
Washington, D. C. 

Dear Mr. Davi s: 

Herewith is our report on 
the activities of the Office of War 
Information in the European Theatre 
of Operations during the calendar year 
1944. I feel you have every reason to 
be proud indeed of the men and women 
who worked so effectively and devotedly, 
often under difficult conditions. 


HespLect fully. 


±G.fi a ^u>- 


Philip C. Hamblet, Director 
European Theatre of Operations 
Office of Wax Information 


“ The enemy has whole legions of Trojan horses : leaflets , radio stations , 
self-satisfied appeals to the German people , to the front , to the women , to the 
tired and susceptible. These are the modern Trojan horses 

—From the Nazi paper Front 
und Heimat. 

“ I must tell you how Kijk (OWI Dutch language magazine) was sold in a 
forward area on the Maas. To begin with , rto town is three or four miles from 
the battleline. When I arrived in our lorry with a load of Kijk, it took me several 
hours to find our chief distributor there. The reason was that the town has been 
leveled almost completely and that business was being carried on nevertheless in 
the heart of the shambles. We finally located our man behind several ruined 
buildings. He was endeavoring to repair his small printing plant in half his shed. 
When we started to unload , the word got around the town that Kijk had arrived. 
Then , before we had a chance to tally everything properly , a queue began to form 
Soon Kijk was being sold over a packing case , with people standing in line over 
heaps of rubble . . . 


—From a letter to London. 


A Report on the Activities of the Office of War 
Information in the European Theater of Operations 
January 1944 • January 1945 


During 1944, OWI faced two major tasks in the European theater : 
first, to provide personnel and material with which to attack enemy morale 
on home front and firing line ; second, to spread accurate and dispassionate 
^information about America and her Allies and thus to build confidence among 
occupied and liberated countries. 

Implicit in the second task is an important long-range objective—to 
create greater understanding of America in Allied countries and thereby to 
strengthen bonds that will perhaps be even more important in maintaining 
peace than they have been in waging war. By the year’s end, OWI in many 
regions had begun to swing toward this type of activity, just as it had begun 
to look forward to a vital function for the future—to assist SHAEF and the 
Allied Control Commissioners in the handling of information services in 
Germany after Germany’s defeat. 

To help save American lives by hastening that defeat, and to tell the 
American story and the story of her Allies, OWI London has scattered its 
men and material from the subarctic reaches of the Scandinavian peninsula 
to the Mediterranean Sea, from the British Isles through France, Belgium, 
Holland and Luxembourg eastward beyond the Rhine. In offices at London 
or Paris or at outposts in the front lines, they have told this story in radio 
broadcasts and newspapers and magazines, in movie films, picture displays 
and photographs for the press ; they have told it in books, lectures and per¬ 
sonal contacts ; they have told it through leaflets dropped in bombs and fired 
in shells and over loudspeakers set up within range of the enemy’s hearing 
and his guns. 

More specifically, OWI London’s activities during 1944 contributed to 
such accomplishments as these : 

Between April 30 and December 31, over 8,000 fifteen-minute 
radio programs containing messages from General Eisenhower and 
Supreme Headquarters, news, commentary and music have reached 
the continent over the transmitters of OWI’s American Broadcasting 
Station in Europe. 

Each week people in twenty-one countries, speaking a dozen 
languages, have attended United Newsreels of the world at war, sent 
from the London office. 

Each month, by radio and plane, news photos of 1,400 different 
subjects have gone from the London Picture Division to points 
around the world ; no outpost with an OWI receiver is more than 
seven minutes away from a spot news picture. 

3 


Every twenty-four hours throughout the year, fifteen tons of 
leaflets have dropped on Germans and German-occupied regions— 
news, military messages, surrender passes, and factual accounts of 
the Allied war effort. 

Every month, a million persons in liberated France and Belgium 
bought copies of the OWI magazines Voir and Kijk from their own 
newsstands ; in the liberated areas of Holland news-hungry citizens 
bought Kijk at the rate of 100,000 copies monthly. 

Each day’s news of the world, condensed from 1,000,000 
incoming words, went from the European News Room to such 
destinations as Belgium (11,000 words) ; Holland (10,000 words) ; 
Germany (7,000 words) ; the Mediterranean and Balkan regions 
(18,000 words). 

Although OWI London is a civilian agency, it is a civilian agency created 
to do a wartime job ; so, with the changing nature of the war during 1944, 
the emphasis of OWI’s London operations also changed. 

During the year’s early part, the office carried on its informational 
activities within the United Kingdom while devoting its chief attention to pre- 
D-day propaganda services and to the task of accumulating men and material 
for the assault on Europe. In this, OWI worked through the Psychological War¬ 
fare Division of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force. 

SHAEF had set up a Psychological Warfare Division to co-ordinate and 
direct its propaganda activities ; for its personnel, PWD drew heavily from 
the British and American agencies charged with such work—the Foreign Office 
Political Intelligence Department for the former, OWI and the Office of Strategic 
Services for the latter. Thus 279 from the OWI staff became part of PWD— 
helping to start radio stations and newspapers in France, distributing films and 
American and British magazines and booklets to the French and Belgian 
agents, and in general doing all possible to help the peoples of liberated areas 
to find out what actually had been happening in the world since 1939. 

For a period following the invasion, PWD worked along lines similar to 
those of the press services, film distributors, magazine publishers and still 
picture syndicates in the United States. Late in the year, however, when the 
French had re-established their own press, radio and film operations, PWD- 
SHAEF moved on and OWI set up its United States Information Service in 
France. Whereas PWD had worked directly in getting newspapers printed 
and moving picture theaters into operation, USIS began to supply the French 
with material on the United States and the part it is playing in the war—not 
only in the west, but with especial emphasis on the Pacific war of which the 
French had known little. 

Later, with SHAEF and the Allied Control Commission, OWI began 
work on plans for the handling of German information services and on material 
for Germany. As the year ended, plans had been laid for the first of two 
PWD newspapers for German civilians and the organization was geared for 
working on news, radio broadcasts, books, films, magazines and pictures for 
use in Germany as large areas of the enemy country came under Allied control. 


In the exchange of material and services, OWI works closely with the 
Allied governments-in-exile, with the French Government, with the British 
Political Intelligence Department (PID), with the British Broadcasting Cor¬ 
poration (BBC), with the British Ministry of Information (MOI), and others. 
For example, in one direction OWI supplies MOI magazines with articles on 
America ; in the other direction, the BBC Monitoring Service supplies OWI 
with vast quantities of material for the analysis of enemy propaganda. In 
certain publications, later to be described in detail, the OWI staff works side 
by side with British artists, make-up men and typographers of the Anglo- 
American Joint Production Unit. 

Although some of OWI London’s output—such as news photos—virtually 
encircles the globe, the territory served by the London office is limited. It 
includes Norway and Denmark as well as the other European countries men¬ 
tioned earlier. For administrative reasons it does not include such Mediter¬ 
ranean countries as Turkey, Egypt or Italy, or such neutrals as Sweden, Portugal 
or Spain, although OWI supplies material to these and other scattered regions. 

OWI employees come from almost all the forty-eight states and are thus 
fitted to express a composite of American attitudes. Chance has kept some 
at desk jobs in England ; others have been in battle. First OWI man in 
France, a Picture Division veteran of the North African campaign, swam from 
a landing craft to a Norman beach four hours after the first D-day assault 
waves. Among scrawled messages he sent back with his negatives were such 
as this : “ Pinned down by concentrated sniper fire for three hours this P.M. 
had to move gear inland etc. Too tired write more. No sleep 72 hours so 
far.” 

Although their experience has been widely varied and of high professional 
competence, they have been called upon to do a propaganda job such as the 
United States has never before attempted. Knowing that improvisation in 
war can often be a necessary instrument of victory. OWI has sometimes had 
to improvise—for one thing it has not always been possible to put the right 
man in the right job at the right time ; in such a case it has been necessary to 
get the job done with the men and tools available. But improvisation can 
be a source of error as well as of success ; OWI has sometimes made mistakes. 
It has had a difficult job to do under difficult circumstances. Its story— 
presented informally as a connected narrative rather than in the traditional 
form of a government report—should show whether or not it has done its job 
effectively. 


AT WORK IA LOADOA 

OWES 1,200 London employees work over their drawing boards and 
typewriters, in darkrooms and at duplicating machines, behind movie pro¬ 
jectors and at microphones in quarters scattered between Mayfair and Fleet 
Street. Some divisions occupy former private dwellings, some are in renovated 
boardinghouses, some are in commercial buildings. Kitchens sometimes 
serve as offices, and bathtubs as filing cases. Some windows have cloth panes, 


because glass to replace bomb breakage is scarce in England ; others are 
plastered with shock-resisting tape to lessen the danger from blast. Few 
escaped damage of one sort or another during 1944. One office had its 
windows blown in three times. In the street near another, a flying bomb 
killed thirty people one summer afternoon. 

The OWI staff in London consists of both American and British personnel. 
Most of the administrative and creative work is done by Americans. Respect 
and affection have grown solidly between the two nationalities during a year 
that began with a series of brisk raids by piloted planes and ended with V- 
weapon attacks still recurrent. No American staff member who worked a 
night shift during the summer of 1944 will soon forget the reliability and 
quick-thinking courage, for example, of the British drivers—both men and 
women—who kept OWI cars rolling through blacked-out London streets during 
certain nights when flying bombs seemed almost continually overhead. There 
were no fatal casualties among American personnel, although some were 
slightly injured and several had their living quarters severely damaged. One 
British girl lost her life when a bomb burst near a bus on which she was riding 
during her lunch hour. 

For the collective OWI job, over-all policy originates in Washington ; 
in the European theater, the London Policy Division maintains close and 
effective liaison with OWI Washington, OWI New York, SHAEF and the 
various Allied governments on all matters requiring common understanding, 
co-ordinated effort and agreement on policy. 

OWLS assignments come from the United States Government through 
the Chief Executive, the State Department, the Army and Navy and Allied 
Supreme Headquarters. The office of the London Director has a dual responsi¬ 
bility : it sees that OWI policy is accurately expressed in all the assorted 
OWI media — films, radio, publications, pictures, exhibits, etc. ; and it 
supervises the operation of the vast physical plant required by such diversified 
activities. The Director, who divides his time between offices in Paris and 
London, reports to the Director of Overseas Operations in Washington. 

OWI’s primary overseas objective has been to help in achieving the defeat 
and unconditional surrender of the enemy and to win understanding and 
approval of the American story among the peoples of Europe. OWI has also 
striven to win similar understanding and approval of those Allied acts and 
policies which are part of the common effort to hasten the enemy’s defeat. 
Further, OWI has tried to assist in carrying out the U.S. Government’s program 
for the restoration and rehabilitation of devastated countries and for the 
creation of an international instrument toward permanent peace. And it has 
attempted to dramatize to European peoples the vast difficulties of fighting 
two wars — in the Pacific as well as in Europe — and to explain the ways in 
which this dual effort has complicated the task of providing and transporting 
supplies for the liberated countries. 

Yet, in such informational services, OWI London does not function as a 
United States press agent. As the Director of its British Division has pointed 
out, it does not exist to persuade other peoples to learn about America, or to 
boast about American achievement. It exists to make available, for those 


who desire to learn about America, the most exact facts and the most respon¬ 
sible interpretations available. Nor is OWI a goodwill agency. It does not 
try to persuade people to like the United States ; it tries to help people to under¬ 
stand the United States, on the assumption that the more the truth about 
America is known, the more the nature of American civilization is understood, 
the better for all concerned. 

In these endeavors, it supplements the work of commercial agencies which, 
owing to wartime shortages or the effects of enemy domination, find them¬ 
selves unable to do a comprehensive job. Thus, as will later be seen in detail, 
OWI does not attempt to cover American spot news for the British press ; 
it does, however, transmit background material which enables British editors 
to give American news more complete and equitable coverage than they could 
otherwise give it because, under wartime conditions, they could not get this 
material through any other medium. Similarly, OWI does not give away its 
magazines on the continent ; it sells them at fair prices in the open market. 
And, for a final instance, when PWD — using OWI material — helped French 
newspapers to resume publication in liberated cities, PWD merely supervised ; 
French editors wrote the headlines, French compositors set the type, and 
French printers made the presses roll. 

In general, OWI London’s various divisions are of three kinds : those 
like Communications, which provide service entirely or almost entirely within 
the organization itself; those like the Picture Division, which divide their 
output between OWI and external agencies ; and those like Radio and Publi¬ 
cations which aim almost their whole output at external targets. 


RADIO 

Prior to April 30, 1944, the Radio Division’s primary task had been to 
feed BBC with America Calling Europe programs, which originated in New 
York. At 5:30 in the afternoon of April 30, after long months of planning 
and arduous technical groundwork, the Division’s American Broadcasting 
Station in Europe (ABSIE) went on the air with a homespun call signal now 
known through half the world and more—the first seven notes of “ Yankee 
Doodle.” 

Without interruption, ABSIE has broadcast eight hours each day ever 
since, sending out programs in German, French, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch', 
Flemish and English and reaching audiences as far distant as South Africa, 
Russia, India, Australia and New Zealand, as well as in the European target 
countries. In addition to operating ABSIE, the Division also : 

1. Maintains liaison with BBC in relation to programs 
originated by OWI New York and relayed over BBC facilities ; 

2. Maintains liaison with radio representatives of liberated 
countries and of governments-in-exile for the establishment of 
exchange programs between those countries and the United States 
during the war and after it ; 


7 


3. Sends recorded special events or other programs to OWI 
New York for broadcast over OWI short-wave facilities there. 

Following a pattern in general similar to that of other OWI divisions. 
Radio depends on Washington headquarters for policy guidance in political 
matters and on direct contact with SHAEF in military matters. 

Prepared and delivered by experts on the several language desks— 
French, German, Norwegian, etc.—broadcast material is of three kinds : 
(1) Orders to people of occupied countries and warnings to the enemy from 
General Eisenhower’s headquarters ; (2) Straight news of events on the fighting 
fronts presented so as to make the enemy understand the inevitability of his 
defeat and to help America’s Allies appreciate America’s part in the war ; 
(3) Feature material reinforcing straight news and projecting the part played 
by American fighting men. 

Thus, on September 12, 1944, ABSIE broadcast the following over all 
available German programs and cross-reported it in other languages over 
ABSIE transmissions : 

ABSIE GERMAN ANNOUNCER NO. 1 : Here is a message from Supreme 
Headquarters. 

ABSIE GERMAN ANNOUNCER NO. 2 : In just a moment you will hear a 
member of the staff of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force. I 
shall give you a full translation of the message he has for you. 

VOICE OF SHAEF (In English for purposes of authentication ) : This is a 
member of the staff of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force. 

The following message ... is issued at the order of the Supreme Commander 
and is addressed to the civilian population of the Ruhr and the Rhineland. 

ABSIE GERMAN ANNOUNCER NO. 2 : On the 26th of August I addressed 
a warning to German civilians in the Duchy of Luxembourg, the French pro¬ 
vince of Alsace-Lorraine, and in Germany west of the RJiine. The swift 
advance of the Allied armies in the west has brought you within the scope of 
that warning. I am repeating it now to the inhabitants of the Ruhr and the 
Rhineland. The areas in which you live are already today in the rear area of 
military operations. Very soon they may become a theater of war. In view 
of these facts I am giving you the following warning : 

1. The rear communications of the remnants of the German Army retreating 
into Germany will be subjected to bombing as devastating as that which preceded 
and accompanied the Allied campaign in Normandy. Civilians are hereby 
warned that everyone who lives or works in the vicinity of road, railroad and 
canal communications ; of military depots, camps and installations ; or 
factories working for the Nazi war machine, must from now on reckon that 
they will not be saved from high level or low level air attack at any hour of the 
day or night. 

2. In particular, emergency earthworks and fortifications will be areas of 
special danger. Civilians are warned that all who work on these military 
targets do so at their own peril. To prevent useless civilian casualties all 
civilians are advised during the coming weeks to evacuate the danger areas 
enumerated above and to take refuge in the countryside as far as possible from 
such areas. 

3. Civilians are further warned that the perpetrators of all atrocities com¬ 
mitted against non-Germans in these areas will be brought to trial for their 
crimes. Evidence as to these crimes will be accepted by the Allied judicial 
authorities from German and non-German witnesses .... 


8 


In a typical warning to a friendly people, On October 2, 1944, ABS1E 
beamed the following to the Dutch : 

AJBSIE ANNOUNCER No. 1 : Here is a message from Supreme Head¬ 
quarters. 

VOICE OF SHAEF (on record ): This is a member of the staff of Supreme 
Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force. The following message ... is 
issued at the order of the Supreme Commander and is addressed to inhabitants 
of the islands in the estuary of the River Scheldt. There is every likelihood 
that a severe and prolonged aerial bombardment will be carried out shortly 
against enemy troops and installations on your islands. 

It is the earnest desire of the Supreme Allied Command that the civil population 
shall be spared the effects of this necessary military action to the greatest extent 
possible. Not only aerial bombardment, but the danger of flooding also 
threatens your lives and the lives of your families. For your protection, leave 
the islands. If that is not possible, if it is necessary for you to remain in the 
islands, remove yourselves and your families immediately to a place of 
safety. 

All military objectives—roads, canals, transport lines, power stations, railway 
yards or sheds, warehouses and depots, enemy concentrations of all kinds— 
are the centers of areas of danger ; leave their vicinity immediately. 

Travel only on foot. Take nothing with you that you cannot easily carry. 

Keep off highways and move only across fields. Do not travel in large groups 
which may be mistaken for enemy formations. Keep away from low-lying 
ground and from military objectives until the enemy has been driven from your 
islands. 

Drawing upon such sources as major wire services, the Overseas News 
and Features Bureau’s daily 22,000-word file from New York and the Basic 
News service of the European News Room (which will later be described), 
ABSIE’s News Section supplies material for the straight news content of the 
various programs. Each day’s output includes coverage of major military 
developments on the eastern and western fronts ; political developments in 
the United States, and in other countries when American participation or 
interest is involved ; and a roundup on the war in the Pacific. 

To reinfoice straight news programs, the Special Events Section supplies 
broadcast material of a kind calculated to enhance ABSIE’s influence in 
Europe. The reasoning behind this part of the Section’s work is this : straight 
news goes to listeners via anonymous voices ; Special Events’ supplementary 
features, in the form of commentaries by persons of wide reputation or in 
eye-witness stories by front-line fighters, give ABSIE an added note of authority. 

Thus, during 1944, ABSIE regularly offered first-person accounts of 
significant events by a long list of war correspondents, some of world-wide 
fame, from such organizations as : 

The N.Y. Times , the N.Y. Herald Tribune, the N.Y. Sun, the London Times, 
the Manchester Guardian, the Saturday Evening Post, Time, Newsweek, the 
London Daily Telegraph, the American Magazine, the Chicago Sun, the Chicago 
Tribune, the Philadelphia Record, the Baltimore Sun, the Omaha World Herald, 
the Louisville Courier Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the San Francisco 
Chronicle, Associated Press, United Press and International News Service ; 
and by radio commentators from NBC, CBS, Blue Network and Mutual. 

ABSIE also broadcast material by high-ranking officers of the United 
States and Allied armed forces, by prominent British civilians such as Sir 


9 


Stafford Cripps, Professor Gilbert Murray, Mr. Leslie Hore-Belisha and Lady 
Louis Mountbatten and by outstanding European personalities ranging from 
King Haakon of Norway to Jan Masaryk of Czechoslovakia. 

In addition, the station broadcast speeches by U.S. Government officials 
including the American Ambassador in London and Congressional represen¬ 
tatives from South Carolina, South Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia, 
Minnesota, Arkansas, California, Oregon and Texas. 

The language-desk experts adapt this and the other material for trans¬ 
mission to the countries for which they are responsible. The regular programs 
include such special features as these for Denmark : 

Fallen on the Home Front —stories of Danish patriots whom 
the Nazis have slain, told by a Danish resistance leader now in 
Britain ; and 

The Danish Rogues Gallery —a traitor’s roll call. 

Before the liberation of French territory, the French Section devoted 
itself chiefly to aiding military operations by broadcasting all SHAEF’s 
guidance and directive material. As Allied troops moved eastward, the 
section employed much of its time in broadcasting news gathered from all 
parts of France. Later, it shifted emphasis to telling the American story 
and the story of America’s Allies, and to entertainment for a nation which 
badly needed it. The section also arranged for the regular retransmission 
of programs by Radio Diffusion Fran^aise which had been organized by the 
French underground movement. 

Outstanding German material includes : 

A German Forces Program —an hour-long daily show including 
not only music, news, and special features, but also a powerful 
propaganda weapon in the form of six or seven items culled from 
intelligence reports on conditions inside Germany. 

America Calling Europe —also offering music and news. Its 
first fifteen minutes each day, relayed over BBC, Radio Luxembourg 
and Algiers, blankets the whole of Germany. 

Music for the Wehrmacht —with short news stories having a 
propaganda value. 

A Labor Show —directed at the large German labor audience 
and including material by American and Allied labor leaders. 

A Program for German Women —featuring the human side of 
the news, especially of German news, to provoke discontent and 
resistance on the home front. 

Reports from neutral countries indicate that ABSIE has a wide following 
within Germany, a situation confirmed by frequent and angry retorts over the 
German radio. As an instance of further confirmation, the 12th Army Group, 
after interviewing 600 Aachen civilians, reported that seventy per cent listened 
to the Allied radio, either to ABSIE or to BBC. 


The station’s English language broadcasts are not beamed to the United 
Kingdom, although many British listeners regularly enjoy them. In establish¬ 
ing an English section, ABSIE drew on the long experience of BBC, whose 
surveys had shown that considerable numbers of continental listeners turned 
to English broadcasts rather than to those in their own language. One reason 
for this is that Europeans—many of whom readily understand English—wished 
to retain their skill in that language. More important, however, is the fact 
that the European peoples have been battered by propaganda for more than 
four years and have become hypersensitive to it and hence tend to stand guard 
against foreign broadcasts in their own languages. BBC found, for example, 
that the astute continental listener who understood English preferred to tune to 
BBC Home Service, clearly received in many parts of Europe. He felt that 
Home Service gave the British public the plain truth about the war and in no 
way pandered to him as an object of propaganda. In this way the English- 
speaking European got the same feeling of being on the inside of events as a 
rural American housewife gets when she picks up the telephone on a party, 
line and listens to information meant for other ears. 


FILMS 

Since its inception the Films Division has negotiated some 7,600 contracts 
for the distribution of OWI and other official U.S. documentary films. To 
the end of 1944 some 4,500 of these contracts have been played with a net 
return to the Treasury of about $220,000. This single phase of the Division’s 
activity reflects its consistent growth in accomplishment since June 1943, when 
it began its life in London with a staff of two ; it does not, however, reflect the 
technical difficulties which it has had to overcome, or the additional problems 
of critical wartime shortages in the type of staff and equipment peculiar to 
film production. In order to get vital sound equipment for its projection 
rooms, for example, it arranged a stroke of unofficial lend-lease with a private 
company in London — one typewriter on a call loan in exchange for two 
sound-heads on the same basis. 

During 1944, the range of the Division’s activity may be gauged by the 
twelve languages in which its United Newsreel appears, including Arabic, 
Chinese, Turkish, Czech and Afrikaans, and by the subjects in which it deals : 
the Capture of Cherbourg, U.S. Soldiers Vote, the Danes Hit Back, the French 
Honor American Heroes, Americans Take Aachen, Allies Break Nazi Grip 
on Holland. 

Along three main lines the Division began to do its share in telling the 
American story and the story of America and her Allies : 

1. Liaison on film matters with the British Ministry of 
Information and the agencies of other Allied governments ; 

2. Distribution in the United Kingdom and on the continent 
of short propaganda films made by the U.S. Army, OWI and other 
U.S. Government agencies ; 


li 


3. Creation of a stockpile of commercial films made in 
Hollywood, with sound tracks or subtitles in the various continental 
languages for distribution on the continent after its liberation and 
in Germany after its occupation. 

Later it assumed a fourth responsibility, in the importation and distribu¬ 
tion of “nontheatrical” material about America for such audiences as educa¬ 
tional groups, industrial groups, British Government agencies and departments, 
and other civic groups on the continent and throughout the United Kingdom. 
American documentary films have been shown to an average of more than 
650,000 people a month in the British Isles for some time. (Late in 1944, by 
arrangement with the Films Division, the British Division of OWI added U.K. 
distribution to its other functions.) 

Early in 1944, the U.S. Army Psychological Warfare Division requested 
that Division staff members be appointed to PWD as films officers, trained 
by OWI and PWD, and charged with : 

1. Helping to open up motion picture theaters in liberated 
countries ; 

2. Impounding enemy or enemy-sponsored films ; 

3. Facilitating the distribution in liberated territories of 
commercial films received from the London stockpiles ; 

4. Directing mobile film units showing U.S. Government 
shorts in towns and villages which the war had deprived of their 
cinema theaters. 

As the Division expanded, it reached the conclusion that the United 
Newsreel , formerly produced by OWI New York, could be more speedily 
shipped from London to such territories as South Africa, Portugal, Mada¬ 
gascar, India and Egypt than from the United States ; it also became clear that 
D-day, invasion and western front stories could be more efficiently handled 
in London than in New York. At the same time, conversations with MOI 
and such governments-in-exile as those of Belgium, Holland and Norway 
uncovered the need for weekly newsreels containing material especially adapted 
for those countries. Further consultations resulted in the decision to produce 
jointly with the MOI and the government of the country concerned six such 
reels, called the Free World Newsreels , for Denmark, for France and Italy in 
addition to those noted above. 

Concurrently with these activities, the Division attacked other im¬ 
portant problems, notably that of safeguarding the rights of the American 
film industry in the distribution of commercial films on the continent. The 
period of adjustment between liberation and the return of normal times, the 
Division believed, would complicate this matter ; for one thing, it was feared 
by some Allied governments-in-exile that uncontrolled negotiation of distribu¬ 
tion contracts between private companies in America and in Europe might 
cause appreciable drain on the foreign exchange credits of some of the countries; 
for another, it perceived a growing tendency in some official European quarters 
to turn film profits into government revenue through the establishment of 
government monopolies in distribution. The Division explored this situation 


12 


in Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Yugoslavia 
and Italy and, after careful study, worked out distribution contracts which on 
the one hand protected the rights of the American film industry in Europe 
and on the other assisted in the solution of complex internal problems con¬ 
nected with films. Denmark and Italy, however, are exceptions,* no represent¬ 
atives from these countries sit in on the makeup of the Danish or Italian 
versions of the Free World Newsreels. 

Conversations with the Allied governments-in-exile had increasingly 
shown that these governments would need short American films for varied 
strategic and tactical propaganda purposes after D-day. One of the chief 
efforts of the Nazi propaganda since the United States entered the war had 
been to persuade inhabitants of the occupied countries that the United Nations 
war effort had been characterized by disunion, conflict and confusion : it was 
therefore necessary to show emphatically and irrefutably the true story of the 
extensive and effective collaboration between the U.S. Government and the 
governments of the occupied territories. And since the British Ministry of 
Information had been engaged in a long series of documentaries naturally 
emphasizing the British contribution to the war effort, the Division felt that it 
had definite production responsibilities in Britain in order to ensure adequate 
coverage for the American story. At the same time, the Division has always 
co-operated closely with the British and other governments situated in London 
as, for example, in the production, with MOI, of a film, Rebirth of a Liberated 
French Town , and, with the Norwegian Government, of shorts depicting the 
Norwegian Merchant Navy and armed forces in the war. 

Like other OWI divisions, Films has been responsible for a share in the 
job of keeping the British and European public abreast of progress in the Pacific 
war. During the autumn of 1944, New York supplied the London office with 
34 film stories on the Pacific war. Each of these has appeared either in the 
United Newsreel or the Free World Newsreel or in both. The Division has also 
released them through ordinary commercial channels to such newsreels as 
British Gaumont, British Paramount, the Ministry of Information, etc. ; 
several stories have been featured in as many as five different newsreels in one 
week. 


PICTURES 

The London OWI Picture Division two years ago consisted of a harried 
Englishwoman working in an 8 by 10 room on the third floor of the American 
Embassy. By the end of 1944, it had grown to an organization using as raw 
material some 15,000 pictures each month from U.S. Army photographers, 
commercial agencies, other OWI offices and its own staff cameramen. 

The efficiency it reached in the meantime can perhaps best be exemplified 
by its D-day experiences with its radiophoto network. After weeks of negoti¬ 
ation with the British Ministry of Information and the Cable & Wireless 
Company for joint transmission from London to the rest of the world, on 
Monday, June 5, OWI engineers moved their equipment into the Cable & 


13 


Wireless offices, and announced plans to run a series of test transmissions the 
following day. For security reasons, the Director’s office allowed these plans 
to stand overnight. But by the time the channels opened on Tuesday, 
June 6, news of the invasion of Europe could be released ; editors and 
engineers made hasty subsitutions ; and embarkation photos of U.S. troops 
replaced the test pictures. OWI radiophotos have been on the air ever since, 
forerunners of 150 each month now beamed to such points as Stockholm, 
Rome, Lisbon, Cairo, Berne, Bombay, Johannesburg, Moscow and Melbourne. 

The radiophotos are part of the Picture Division’s effort to tell the 
American story in three main ways : 

1. Supplying the picture needs of all other OWI divisions 
and sections in London and on the continent, including psychological 
warfare units in the field. 

2. Distributing to the press of the United Kingdom and the 
continent all official U.S. photos originating in the European theater, 
as well as American pictures reaching London from all other areas, 
including China, Burma, India, the Middle East, the Pacific battle- 1 
fronts and the United States itself. 

3. Distributing pictures originating in this theater direct to 
65 OWI outposts and State Department missions throughout the 
world, thus enabling them to tell in each area the picture story of the 
U.S. war effort, co-operation with its Allies, and steps to restore and 
rehabilitate liberated countries. 

From the monthly 15,000-picture stockpile, editors select about 3,000 of 
present or potential value. These are then captioned and processed. By 
radiophoto, the best go immediately to all parts of the world. A speedy 
print and negative service of these and others of prime importance then goes to 
all OWI outposts—scattered from Ireland to China—and to State Department 
missions. Photos of secondary importance are distributed only to OWI units 
on the continent and in London. Others, of limited value now but of potential 
future usefulness, go to the picture library. In all, between June 1944, and the 
end of the year, some 800,000 prints and 38,000 negatives went throughout 
the world from the London Picture Division. 

In addition, plastic plates aid in telling the American picture story in 
newspapers unable to afford to make engravings or in areas lacking engraving 
facilities. Of these plates which are lightweight plastic replicas of zinc engrav¬ 
ings some 118,000—mostly produced by the London Picture Division—went 
from London to OWI and State Department offices throughout the world 
during the last six months of 1944. 

In London and on the continent, all other OWI units depend upon the 
Picture Division for their photographic needs ; its pictures go into magazines, 
leaflets and other psychological warfare weapons, into displays and exhibits 
both in the British Isles and in countries across the Channel. Every PWD 
team went to the continent armed with OWI pictures and later received daily 
service wherever they set up headquarters—Cherbourg, Rennes, Paris, Brussels, 
Luxembourg, and now Germany ; then back from the forward areas came 


14 


such typical comments as : “ Your pictures have been displayed in store 
windows in almost every town and village through which the Third Army 
advanced. Especially during the first days of liberation, when German 
propaganda pictures had to be replaced, your material was of immense value 
and always drew a large gathering.” Back from the continent, too, came 
pictures from the five OWI cameramen stationed there throughout the summer 
of 1944, pictures of the liberation of Cherbourg, of the struggle across France, 
through Chartres and at last into Paris. 

As a result of thoroughgoing co-operation with MOI and the British 
press, newspapers in the United Kingdom lean heavily on the Division for 
picture coverage. From D-day on, no newspaper in Fleet Street went to 
press without checking OWI to make sure no new pictures were coming in. 
Between June 1944, and the end of the year, the Division sent some 18,000 
photos to Fleet Street agencies, of which the London dailies and the four leading 
magazines alone published nearly 3,000. It is probably an understatement 
to say that the provincial press printed as many again. 

Close liaison of this sort has paid off with impressive results. For 
instance, divisional staff photographers covered the triumphant return of the 
French Second Armored Division all the way from the marshaling area in 
England to the Normandy beachhead and thence to Paris. An hour after 
release of their photographs, which censors had held under wraps for several 
days, the Division sent out eight radiophotos as flash coverage ; and within 
twenty-four hours, it had sent by air to all parts of the world a total of 10,000 
prints and 400 negatives on 100 picture subjects. 

Similarly with Rundstedt’s advance during the last two weeks of December, 
when the Germans broke through in the Ardennes : censorship released the 
Division’s photos on Christmas Eve, and editorial and darkroom staffs went 
to work. During that night the laboratory staff turned out 1,200 prints on 
seventeen picture subjects while the editorial staff prepared complete captions. 
On Christmas Day, radiophoto beams from London carried the first pictures 
of the American counterattacks that stopped the Nazi drive ; and at 4 p.m. 
army planes left England with complete services of pictures telling the story 
of the American stand. 


PUBLICATIONS 

Until mid-1944, a large part of the copy for OWI publications aimed at 
the continent had been coming from the New York offices. By spring of that 
year it became evident that an operation so long-range for a task so. vast was 
no longer feasible ; therefore it was decided to send personnel from America 
to London and there to enlarge the Publications Division into an all-round 
organization able to write and edit copy on the spot and do the lay-out and 
other art work for magazines, posters and picture exhibits. 

Post-D-day reports coming in from liberated France all stressed the same 
theme ; the peoples who had lived under Nazi occupation were starved for 
news of the outside world and were particularly interested in news about the 
American war effort and American life in general. 


15 


Therefore, in the Editorial Section, writers began preparing copy for : 

1. One-shot booklets to be sold in the liberated countries ; 

2. Picture magazines— Voir , Kijk, Fotorevy ; and for digest 
magazines— Choix , II Mese , etc. ; and other joint publications in 
co-operation with British agencies ; 

3. Special projects for other U.S. agencies, such as a booklet 
on leaflet bombing for the U.S. Army Air Forces. 

4. Communique Graphique and Nouvelles par Ulmage — 
posterlike news-picture displays issued weekly. 

The Division’s writers turn from subject to subject in telling the American 
story ; from an article on the U.S. Congress to one on the rodeo, from the 
International Ladies Garment Workers Union to a New England town meeting. 
In line with OWI policy of writing about the Allies as well as America, writers 
sometimes journey out of London—to Oxford, to sit in on courses for Allied 
soldiers on leave ; to Coventry, to observe Dutch refugee children cared for 
in child centers there ; to Yorkshire, to cover the French heavy bomber 
squadrons in the RAF ; or, on one rush occasion, to France with General 
LeClerc’s men to gather material for a booklet on the landings of the French 
Second Armored Division—a twenty-page job which was through the presses 
and ready for distribution in France ten days later. 

As OWI operations in Paris, Brussels and Luxembourg have begun to 
function, the London editorial staff has found a new task, which is likely to 
become increasingly important : that of supplying articles and background 
material for publications in those countries—as, for example, a Brussels 
magazine which requested copy and photographs for a special 32-page issue 
on the United States. 

Production and immediate editorial supervision of the three news-picture 
magazines— Voir, Kijk and Fotorevy —rests with the Photo Review Section. 
The first is printed in France and England, the second only in England, and 
the third is prepared in London, translated and printed in Stockholm. At 
the end of 1944, their press runs stood respectively at 425,000 ; 100,000 ; 
and 20,000. Voir sells for ten francs in France, five francs in Belgium ; Kijk 
for five francs in Belgium and twenty Dutch cents in Holland ; Fotorevy — 
produced for Norwegians interned in Sweden and for smuggling into Norway— 
is distributed free of charge. Sales prices of magazines are set by agreement 
with the governments of each country. Both Voir and Kijk are distributed 
through regular commercial agencies in France, Belgium, and Holland. 

Like other OWI activities, these magazines operate with the broad pur¬ 
pose of: 

Impressing their readers with the global nature of the war ; 

Stressing the harmony of the United Nations toward victory ; 

Acquainting the European peoples with the customs, culture 
and basic democratic principles of the United States. 

Towards these ends, the magazines, during 1944, published stories about 
the war against Japan ; the war efforts of the United States, England, Russia, 


16 


France and the other United Nations ; and about life in the United States. 
Typical issues contained roundups'of the world’s war fronts, a technical 
explanation—with diagram—of the jet-propelled plane, a page of James 
Thurber cartoons, an essay on organized labor’s part in the American War 
effort, and stories about the Alaska Highway, the 4-H Clubs, the French fighter 
squadron operating in Russia, written by one of the flyers, the women operating 
England’s canal barges in wartime, and profiles of such American personalities 
as Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur, Admiral Nimitz, Secretary of State 
Stettinius. At all times editorial policy strives to select stories for their 
informational value to the reader and keeps the propaganda content present 
only by implication. As a result, the magazines have met with a reception 
so enthusiastic that demand for them during 1944 has far exceeded the Divi¬ 
sion’s printing ceilings. Sometimes the pressure of events has made it 
necessary to change a magazine’s contents : Voir's first issue had been allowed 
to go to press by D-day ; but as soon as news of the Normandy landings 
could be released in London, the Division scrapped the issue, substituted 
material for a liberation issue, and in the following week dropped 100,000 
copies on France. Both Voir and Kijk carry notices in each issue, explaining 
that they are temporary publications which will go out of operation as soon as 
the publishing industries of the countries concerned are on their feet again. 

The digest magazines—in Italian, French, Norwegian, Danish and 
Dutch—relate to one another as part of a joint project, the International 
Review Digest, originated by a British editorial unit in co-operation with 
OWI’s Publications Division. Jointly financed, each digest magazine is also 
jointly edited by representatives of the United States, Great Britain and, 
in most instances, of the nation for which the publication is intended. The 
over-all purpose of these magazines is to bring the liberated countries up to 
date on social and political thought, scientific, literary and artistic achievements, 
through articles from leading magazines and extracts from important books, 
broadcasts, and other documents. The American interest in this is to give 
the American story its proportionate weight. 

The French digest— Choix —typifies such publications. Issues in 1944 
contained war reporting, stories of medical and scientific discoveries, significant 
American fiction, articles on social reconstruction and on the postwar treatment 
of Germany and Japan and, occasionally, the full text of important documents. 
In addition, each month’s Choix featured a symposium on such subjects as 
“ What to Do with Germany ” and “ A Federation of Western Europe.” 
Choix sells for 10 francs per copy in France and 8 francs in Belgium. The 
French press often reprints its articles, and its circulation rose from 20,000 
to 311,000 copies at the end of the year, distributed as follows : 250,000 to 
France, 50,000 to Belgium, and the remainder to Africa and the Middle East. 

The Norwegian and Danish digests have been printed mainly for stock¬ 
piling against the time when the Allied armies liberate those countries. 
Similarly, the Publications Division has—during the last seven months of 
1944 —stockpiled twelve booklets, ranging from 24 to 80 pages each, for 
Norway. Experience in liberated France, as detailed later, amply justifies 


17 



/ 


such stockpiling. The people of each liberated country hunger for news of 
the outside world, especially of America. Through close consultation with 
the Norwegian Government Information Office—and through its assistance 
with such problems as translation—the Division has assured itself that these 
booklets contain the stories about America which the highly literate, intelligent 
and propaganda-weary Norwegians will be eager to read. Following similar 
lines, the Division has also produced a Danish stockpile. Representative 
titles common to both programs include : Progress in the Pacific , Since 1939 , 
America at War , The Fighting Merchant Marine. 


THE BOOK PROGRAM 


As a further part of OWI’s effort to feed Europe’s hunger for news of 
the world, especially of America, Publications’ Book Section during its ten 
months’ life in 1944 has conducted a service to give foreign booksellers and 
publishers a picture of the publishing industry in the United States since 
1939 ; and to place before European readers representative books either 
in translation or in the original editions. 

Because a considerable time would elapse before normal publishing 
activities could resume in the liberated countries of Europe, OWI bought 
rights to a number of useful and typical books for a period ending six months 
after hostilities ceased, for distribution in France, Belgium and Holland. By 
the end of 1944, the Section was completing production of editions of 35,000 
each of titles in French under the imprint Editions Transatlantiques ; and of 
15,000 each of the Dutch books under a corresponding imprint. A selection 
of titles includes : 


America 

A Time for Greatness 
Lend-Lease : Weapon for Victory 
Benjamin Franklin 
Report from Tokyo 
U.S. Foreign Policy 
Peace and War 


by Stephen Vincent Benet 
Herbert Agar 
Edward R. Stettinius, Jr. 
Carl Van Doren 
Joseph C. Grew 
Walter Lippman 
U.S. State Department 


In addition, the Section has helped continental publishers in getting 
foreign language rights to American books ; it has transmitted sixty such 
requests from the French Syndicat des Editeurs and about 100 from the Belgian 
Government on behalf of publishers ; with a Norwegian Government- 
sponsored group it has arranged contracts for sixteen leading American books ; 
it bought some 150,000 French books in America for'distribution in France 
following D-day—thus enabling a PWD field team to re-open a bookshop in 
Cherbourg a few days after the liberation (in this instance as in all others, 
books were sold and not given away) ; and it has, among other tasks, com¬ 
piled reference lists and other source material to facilitate purchase of books 
by distributors and government agencies. At no point in all this has the 
Book Section competed with commercial literary agents or publishers. 


18 


POSTERN AIM) EX HI HITS 


The job of producing all Publications material (except books) falls upon 
the Graphics and Exhibits Section—pa^t of whose work affords a strikingly 
interesting example of Allied co-operation in the Anglo-American Joint 
Production Unit. Born of war necessity, the Unit at the peak of military 
leaflet production was one of the largest publishing enterprises in the world. 
British and American artists, layout men, typographers and printing experts 
worked side by side and—following the lead of the Supreme Command— 
served under one administrative head. 

Personnel was recruited from the OWI on the American side and, on 
the British side, from PID. British artists designed American publications 
and American artists designed British publications—nationality was forgotten 
in the interests of a job quickly and efficiently done. As the emphasis on the 
task at hand gradually shifted from straight propaganda to information for 
liberated countries, the creative functions of publishing were returned to the 
two agencies and the Joint Production Unit became a central printing and 
typesetting service for the exclusive use of OWI and PID. 

The Graphics and Exhibits Section operates like the art department of 
a large publishing house. It designs, makes up and follows through to the 
printer the major part of OWI and related British publications, including 
booklets and more than a dozen fortnightly and monthly magazines such as : 
Voir , II Mese, Choix, Fotorevy , Kijk, and Brev fra Amerika ; one-shot or 
special booklets such as Since 1939 , Progress in the Pacific , America at War , 
and the French Second Armored Division ; leaflets, pewspapers, posters, and 
displays. 

To do this, it draws upon a high degree of technical skill in layout, 
sketching, lettering and in selecting photographic material. Although its 
poster program for the continent had completed its purpose by October 1944, 
displays still perform a useful and prominent function in telling the American 
and Allied story on the continent. Communique Graphique appeared in 
nineteen weekly issues up to the end of 1944 ; Nouvelles par FImage, a printed 
sheet of news-photos designed to fit the long panes of continental shop windows, 
by the end of 1944 reached a weekly press run of 6,000 in French for France 
and Belgium, and 2,000 in a Dutch counterpart for Holland and the Flemish 
section of Belgium. 

The Section’s exhibit activities originated in sheer necessity. The Paris 
office urgently requested a display to fill the old Citroen showroom on the 
Place de l’Opera, one of the city’s focal points. A week’s feverish days and 
nights of work in picture editing, caption writing and production resulted in 
an exhibit called Photos Documentaires de la Guerre Mondiale (Documentary 
Photos of the Global War). Divided into 16 sections and comprising some 
250 photographs enlarged to various sizes—some as much as six feet wide— 
the exhibit traced the history of the war on all fronts from the Battle of Britain 
up to the latest communiques ; its detailed history appears in the account of 
the Paris office. 


19 


LEAFLETS 


The story of OWI London’s part in leaflet operations is also the story of 
an experiment and an adventure in Anglo-American relations. A two-man 
staff—the nucleus of what is now the Publications Division—arrived in London 
during midsummer of 1942 with two duffel-bags, one suitcase and a directive : 
produce American leaflets for France. With little more than that, the pair 
installed themselves in the rural headquarters of a psychological warfare branch 
of the British Foreign Office. 

They found the British facilities extensive, including a production division 
which since September of 1939 had manufactured millions of leaflets for RAF 
distribution and a photographic library matching that of any Chicago or New 
York newspaper. Men and women of many nationalities and many tongues 
lived and worked side by side. Meals were communal, sleeping quarters 
resembled boarding school dormitories. All were united in a common objec¬ 
tive : to tell the truth to the peoples of occupied Europe. 

As the American staff grew, it opened an office on the top floor of the 
Embassy ; and the tag-end of 1942 saw the publication of the first American 
leaflet in the United Kingdom, a single-sheet “newspaper” 5|- by 8J inches 
called L'Amerique en Guerre (America at War). Each week the RAF dropped 
300,000 copies over the Paris, Lyons, and Rouen regions and over other areas 
in the northwest ; and, for the first time since war broke out, the people of 
France were able to read the American story. 

Encouraging reports came in : following an audacious RAF raid, copies 
of L'Amerique en Guerre appeared in the streets of Vichy itself. At about the 
same time, came the first joint Anglo-American publication for aerial propa¬ 
ganda warfare, a small press review bearing excerpts from the British and 
American press to occupied Europe. 

At first, only the RAF distributed American leaflets and news-sheets to 
Europe. As the British-based American air forces grew, so did their interest 
in helping to scatter “nickels”—British term for leaflets. Because American 
planes and men were few at first, pilots were justifiably skeptical about risking 
personnel and equipment in psychological warfare. As intelligence reports 
began coming in from American as well as British sources, doubt slowly 
turned into enthusiasm. Fliers realized that they were a link between the free 
world and the Nazi-held world and that messages dropped from the air there¬ 
fore bore encouragement and hope to the oppressed peoples of Europe. The 
staff also helped to develop the leaflet bomb which revolutionized air propa¬ 
ganda warfare by making it possible to give concentrated coverage to a pre¬ 
determined target. 

With the spring of 1943, leaflet production jumped into the millions— 
material in French, German, Dutch, Flemish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, 
Yugoslav, Serbo-Croat, Italian, Spanish, Arabic. The RAF dropped them by 
night, the USAAF by day ; round-the-clock aerial propaganda had begun. 
By the winter of 1943, the two air forces were dropping fifteen tons of paper 
every twenty-four hours over occupied Europe. 


20 


Joint editorial decisions determined assignments ; American papers 
covered peculiarly American stories, such as the Guadalcanal campaign; 
British papers covered British stories. British and Americans together wrote 
the Casablanca Conference story. 

As production mounted, co-operation grew with it ; BBC supplied 
emergency translators ; the Ministries of Supply and Production helped 
produce needed paper, all the more essential with the inception of airborne 
booklets and airborne magazines. These airborne magazine were miniatures, 
containing both pictures and text and measuring 4 1 by 5J inches. Some of 
these were edited jointly, such as Wervelwind (Holland), Glas Pobede (Yugo¬ 
slavia), Accord (France) ; some of them were primarily British edited : Det 
Frie Norge (Norway) ; some were American edited : Brev fra Amerika 
(Norway)—all told the Allied war story. Out of this joint effort, came the 
Anglo-American Production Unit—actually only a formal christening of an 
operation which had been active for many months. 

Another of this unit’s accomplishments was the publication of a news¬ 
paper for Germany. This newspaper, which cannot be identified further for 
reasons of military security, was a journalistic venture perhaps unequaled in 
this war. An Anglo-American journal edited with the co-operation of the 
military, its circulation surpassed that of most metropolitan dailies in the 
United States. It was issued in two daily editions and dropped over the 
German lines by the leaflet bombs. 

Meanwhile, the staff produced leaflets and posters for the psychological 
warfare personnel under General Eisenhower’s command in Africa ; leaflet 
production had grown to an average of 10,000,000 units weekly, and far sur¬ 
passed that during the African landings, when the operation was able to keep 
metropolitan France abreast of developments via as many as 24,000,000 leaflets 
in a single night. At one point monthly leaflet production reached 300,000,000 
units. Like that of all other war workers in London, the OWI job was not 
always easily done. On three separate occasions, one of its printing firms 
had glass blasted into the presses ; flak smashed through the London office 
roof one midnight and missed an artist’s head by inches. 

With the establishment of SHAEF in London, the Psychological Warfare 
Division absorbed the leaflet operation, taking over American and British 
civilian and military personnel, with OWI making a heavy contribution. 


PNliHOLOiJRAL WARFARE 

It is not always possible to draw a sharp demarcation between psycho¬ 
logical warfare and informational activities. Thus PWD press teams landing 
on the Normandy beaches last summer had as their primary function the task 
of giving all possible aid to the French press in order that it could re-establish 
itself on a healthy and eventually self-sustaining basis—a function in many 
ways the same as that which underlies the production of publications in London 
for distribution in France. 


21 


Other psychological warfare personnel had as their objective an attack on 
enemy morale through such devices as mobile public address systems and 
leaflets scattered in bombs and shells among the enemy at the front and at home. 

First psychological warfare personnel landed on the Normandy beaches 
on D-day, a tiny group including a news photographer, a liaison officer between 
PW, the First Army and the 21st Army Group, and an intelligence officer. 
Although they had little psychological warfare to conduct during that period, 
the air was full of it in the form of broadcasts by BBC and ABSIE ; and 
British-based-bomber squadrons were scattering millions of leaflets. Some 
were addressed primarily to enemy coastal divisions—Volksdeutsche troops 
with little stomach to serve as “ human land-mines ” for the Herrenvolk farther 
back. Later interrogation indicated that the leaflets—in German and in 
Russian and Polish for the German impressed and mercenary troops—played 
their part in the rather speedy surrender of these coastal detachments. 

As the Allied troops pushed inland, other psychological warfare groups 
landed in France. The organization, stemming from SHAEF with control 
vested in the Psychological Warfare Division, contained British and American 
civilian and military personnel and included members from the British Ministry 
of Information, the British PID, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services and the 
U.S. Office of War Information. In addition to mobile printing equipment, 
they brought with them tons of ready-printed material already rolled for firing 
in shells from the two most usual weapons, the 25-pounder on the British front 
and the 105mm. weapon on the American. They also brought key lists of 
leaflets available in the United Kingdom, each bearing a code number for 
reference in signals from the field to PWD-SHAEF. Thus forward PW 
operatives—filling a role similar to that of artillery spotters—were able to 
direct leaflet fire by area and text. 

As the mobile printing equipment swung into action, leaflet production 
became simple. On the basis of tactical information from PW Intelligence, 
the operatives established a regular production schedule, with presses rolling 
night and day except for rest periods for men and machines ; women and girls 
hired by the day from neighboring French villages rolled the leaflets for insertion 
into the shells. It was found that a full-scale shoot by divisional artillery 
required a press run of about 50,000. 

Because the campaign in France was many weeks old before the first 
radio station—at Rennes—fell into Allied hands, radio propaganda had to 
be conducted over mobile equipment. PWD personnel, however, relied 
largely on the powerful transmitters of BBC and ABSIE in the United Kingdom 
to speak to the enemy garrisoned in France and to the German population 
behind the lines. The capture of Radio Luxembourg enlarged the facilities 
available for PWD operations. 

Perhaps because the Germans believed they would return one day to 
Luxembourg, they did not blow up its tremendously powerful transmitter— 
the most powerful in Europe outside of Germany. They did, however, leave 
a huge quantity of dynamite in the cellar of the studio building ; when this 
was sealed off, broadcasting began. In addition to regular daily news and 
feature shows beamed to the German people and army, there are special 


22 


programs addressed to special groups, to women, to German youth in a series 
entitled Youth at the Crossroads , to the millions of foreign workers in Nazi- 
held territory. 

One highly successful tactical show called “ Briefe die Sie Nicht Erreichten ” 
(Letters Which Did Not Reach You) consisted in reading from some 50,000 
letters captured unopened when German troops hastily retreated from localities 
having army postal service. These were especially effective because, owing 
to a reported manpower shortage, German mail was no longer censored ; 
soldiers at the front and the people at home expressed themselves with great 
frankness. The letters were read aloud without changes except for cuts 
necessitated by the limitations of time on the air ; there was also reading of 
recent letters from German prisoners of war in Allied camps and assurances 
of good treatment for other prisoners. Because Allied bombing attacks had 
produced chaos in the German mails and because German troops had been 
incessantly on the move, and because the program, in effect, consisted of 
Germans speaking to Germans, it proved popular among troops and civilians 
alike. A typical excerpt, written by a former policeman, later a soldier in the 
front lines at Metz, complains as follows : 

“ The Supreme Command would do best to quit fighting. They must see how 
things stand ; why don’t they stop this slaughter ? One ought to have the 
courage to say : ‘ I have lost, I can't continue any longer.’ But no, when 
everything is dstroyed, these gentlemen shoot themselves and thus withdraw 
from all responsibility.” 

Sound trucks supplemented radio and leaflets as psychological weapons ; 
and in this threefold attack, PW operatives strove to bear in mind one para¬ 
mount operating principle : psychological warfare of itself wins no battles. 
Used within the framework of a given military situation, however, psychological 
warfare’s effectiveness has won high praise in military circles, as summarized 
by this comment from an intelligence officer : “ First hand investigation in the 
areas of Germany occupied by the First U.S. Army indicates the necessity for 
continuing our psychological warfare campaign, using leaflets, radio broad¬ 
casts and loudspeakers.” 


ALLIED INFORMATION SERVICES 

Behind the lines, PWD units functioned under the title Allied Information 
Services. The AIS job was to support the Allied military effort by helping 
the various branches of the armed services to return the liberated areas as 
quickly as possible to some semblance of normal life. Working mainly in 
the field of public information—radio, newspapers, public address news 
dissemination, cinema, publications distribution, AIS also maintained liaison 
with French information officials and served as a political intelligence agency 
and public relations advisor to Army Civil Affairs. 

AIS sound trucks, working in areas where radio reception was not yet 
possible, broadcast news flashes and military instructions to the population ; 
its mobile cinema trucks took film shows to regions lacking regular cinema 




23 


facilities ; its press units re-opened newspapers and printed and posted wall 
newspapers. Each sound car followed a regular run, sometimes covering as 
many as twenty towns in a single day ; as a result of strenuous efforts to reach 
each town each day at the same time, so that its visit became an established 
event of village life, crowds would appear in the village squares, peering down 
the empty road that wound between the hedgerows, awaiting the Allied town 
crier. Wall newspapers were simply printed, and often distributed by jeep. 

Although a small, single-sheet paper was begun at Bayeux not long after 
its liberation, the first real paper to reappear in France was La Presse Cher - 
hourgeoise, which hit the streets three days after the city fell to the Allies. The 
plant had not been badly damaged by the fighting, although the composing 
room roof had been smashed by shellfire and the composing room itself flooded 
by heavy rains. Monitoring the London broadcasts provided news material ; 
and, once the plant was put in good order, 30,000 copies rolled off the presses 
in an hour each morning. The day the first edition appeared, half the 
Cherbourg population thronged the street outside La Presse offices, ready to 
mob the newsboys. Watching this dramatic scene from a safe balcony, a 
Civil Affairs officer summarized the findings of Allied news units throughout 
liberated Europe : “ The hunger of these people for honest news is even 
stronger than their hunger for food.” 

r 

OWI’8 INTERNAL SERVICES 

As noted before, the OWI European operation depends for material and 
guidance upon its internal services—the European News Room, the Policy 
Division, and Communications—which place the major part of their production 
within OW! both in the United States and abroad. 

The mechanical heart of all OWI operations is the Communications 
Division, responsible for receiving and transmitting “ press ” and administra¬ 
tive messages between the OWI outposts, New York and Washington. Banks 
of teletype machines clatter twenty-four hours a day, using the facilities of 
British and American commercial carriers and of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. 
Press traffic going eastward in general consists of relays for other OWI out¬ 
posts of background information, official texts and such material as already 
described in the Radio Division. Westward traffic—amounting to about 
45,000 words daily-^-consists of neutral and enemy broadcasts monitored by 
BBC, foreign press comment received from MOI and OWI outposts and 
material from OWI outposts relayed back to New York through London. 

London is the OWI’s largest international communications relay center. 
The reason for this is an amalgamation in 1929 of various London common 
carriers which made possible a drastic reduction in rates for service between 
London and most of the countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia. An “ Empire 
Press Rate ” of one English penny for each word of press material sent between 
any two British Empire points was established. To take advantage of this 
low rate, material is sent from New York by blind Morse (one-way radio 
transmission) over Signal Corps or commercial facilities to London. Material 


24 


destined for the European or Far Eastern outposts—Moscow, Calcutta, 
Chungking—is then relayed over Cable & Wireless, Ltd., facilities. 

In addition to the resulting economies, the relay service over Cable & 
Wireless, Ltd., enabled OWI to establish continuous round-the-clock service 
to all the cities it wished to reach because service on many direct routes from 
New York to foreign cities is not maintained continuously. Because it costs 
less in this way than in any other, the Division also relays material received 
from OWI outposts to New York and Washington. 

At the beginning of 1944 there existed no news operation of any kind in 
or connected with the Allied military operation in the European Theater of 
Operations. Starting from scratch in January, the section chief and one news 
editor began the job of setting up a world news service as part of the effort 
common to all OWI operations : to spread the truth because the truth is the 
Allies 1 most potent psychological weapon. 

Organized as a joint British-American unit in PWD-SHAEF and ulti¬ 
mately staffed by OWI, the British MOI and PID, the Belgian Information 
Service and the U.S. Army, the Ne\^ Room first assumed the task of supplying 
a world news file to ABSIE and BBC. It also began providing a basic news 
file to all other sections of PWD, and to other London offices of OWI as 
material to assist in the production of leaflets, airborne newspapers, picture 
displays, newsreels and other motion pictures. 

Then, near D-day, PWD teams in remote parts of England began practice 
in listening to a vocal newsfile broadcast at a speed enabling them to copy it 
in longhand. Within a month, the operation was running smoothly with a 
wireless Morse news transmission beamed to Normandy, Algiers and Italy, 
to be picked up by trained PWD monitoring teams for use in re-establishing 
press and radio facilities. By mid-August, news was going out seventeen 
hours each day ; and by September, the Morse transmitters were sending an 
18,000-word English news file daily for the Mediterranean and a 7,000-word 
file in French for France. 

When the 21st Army Group found itself unable to obtain monitored 
reports of enemy broadcasts following D-day, the News Room started another 
news service : from the Federal Communications Commission’s monitoring 
service it obtained reports of enemy broadcasts and relayed these by telephone 
to the 21st A.G. Later it extended this service to include Radio Luxembourg, 
the 12th and 6th Army Groups, and the G-2, G-3 and G-5 divisions of SHAEF. 
By July 26, the News Room was transmitting 10,000 words of enemy monitoring 
reports daily to military headquarters on the continent. 

Services to the liberated areas continued to expand. On September 13, 
a service for Belgium was started, with Morse signals going out in both French 
and Flemish languages. Ten days later, Flolland began to receive a file of 
news in Dutch. Simultaneously, a new vocal file—this time in German— 
transmitted the latest news to the captured parts of Germany for teams using 
public address trucks in the field and posting daily news bulletins in German 
towns, and to Radio Luxembourg which in turn broadcast the news to a wide 
circle of German listeners both inside and outside the Reich. 


\ 


25 


In October, at the request of the military, the News Room began sending 
a daily 1,500-word summary of what the German press was printing to SHEAF 
Main in Paris, Radio Luxembourg, and the 21st, 12th and 6th Army Groups. 


POLICY 

The Policy Division of London OWI deals with over-all policy, as noted 
earlier. Its special sections deal with language problems, intelligence, and 
propaganda analysis. 

The Propaganda Analysis Section’s job during 1944 was to report on 
enemy material, analyze its psychological fabric and uncover weak spots for 
counterattack ; and to relay day-by-day news of enemy propaganda to 
appropriate policy and operations departments in London, Washington and 
New York. 

The organization to accomplish this task began its work in London early 
in 1943, when the Section chief and a staff of four began a twenty-four-hour- 
day schedule of reporting enemy broadcasting. They soon took steps to 
broaden their activities and at the same time to avoid duplication with other 
similar agencies ; they shared facilities with the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence 
Service of the Federal Communications Commission and worked side by side 
with the monitoring service of the British Government. Having multi¬ 
linguists on its staff, the Section is able not only to hear the radio broadcasts 
of the enemy but to taste the actual flavor of the enemy propaganda and to 
assess the value of its spoken emphasis and its dramatic presentation. 

Thus during 1944 the Section was able to provide a variety of specialized 
reports, such as : 

At General Eisenhower’s request, a summary of the enemy’s 
explanations for his withdrawal from the eastern front from January 
1943 through January 1944—the purpose of which was to show to 
what extent the German withdrawal was a planned retreat and how 
much the result of Russian offensive power. 

A summary of Germany’s food problems, of the highest 
importance in view of the enemy’s continual use of food as a weapon. 

A special report—based on BBC monitoring of Japanese 
broadcasts—on Japanese reaction to the liberation of France—of 
particular importance in counteracting enemy propaganda which 
suddenly focused attention on the Japanese war effort for the purpose 
of minimizing the power of American forces operating in Europe. 

A survey of German propaganda to German workers, which 
exposed the enemy’s pseudosocialist program and provided guidance 
for special Allied radio transmissions to German and Austrian labor. 

A handbook revealing the enemy’s main propaganda lines, 
especially during the last six months of the German occupation of 
France. Outlining Nazi propaganda dealing with the origins of the 
war, the American story, and the over-all Allied story, it supplies 


26 




the actual words, or a close paraphrase of them, which the enemy 
used in relation to these and other topics. A study of the Nazi 
battle for the French mind, it is indexed as a reference work for 
distribution to OWI, PWD, U.S. Army and other U.S. Government 
agencies in France. 

Merged in October 1944, the Military Intelligence Section and the 
Operations Intelligence Section now form the Intelligence Section of the 
London OWI. It is divided into a Research Unit, a Translation Unit, a 
Central Clearing Unit and a Reproduction Unit and publishes daily notes on 
military, German and French affairs and weekly summaries on German and 
international affairs. These provide background material for the French 
and German sections of ABSIE, for OWI units, for PWD-SHAEF, G-5, 
USSTAF (U.S. Strategic and Tactical Air Forces), OSS, PID, BBC and the 
military and press attaches of State Department missions to various European 
countries. 

These notes and summaries cover such matters as the ground war on the 
Several Fronts, frictions and crises in the German army, terrain intelligence, 
cultural and religious affairs in Germany, health and sanitation, Nazi resistance 
to Allied control, German military personalities, etc. 

The Policy Division’s foreign language desks—French, German, Scandi¬ 
navian, Dutch, etc.—interpret OWI policy according to regional and central 
directives issued in Washington as well as to basic plans for each region 
concerned. They advise and assist other OWI units in the preparation of 
magazines and leaflets and provide special guidance for ABSIE programs, 
Films and Pictures and maintain liaison with representatives of the various 
foreign governments and with PWD-SHAEF. They also provide staffs in 
embryo for future outposts in liberated countries ; the first United States 
Information Service director in Paris, for instance, formerly had been head 
of the French desk in London. 

The French Section co-operates with Publications in the production 
of its magazines such as Voir ; with Films in selecting and titling material, 
both documentary and commercial. In addition to similar activities, the 
Scandinavian Section has worked with the Picture Division to accumulate two 
large picture stockpiles which will help in telling the American story during 
and after the liberation. These photographs, totalling some 1,500 subjects, 
will be made available to Scandinavian newspapers and magazines for use 
during Psychological Warfare Division operations and will later revert to 
possible U.S. informational units as the nuclei of picture libraries for 
Copenhagen and Oslo. And as a result of Section activity, Norwegian 
Publishers, Ltd.—a Norwegian Government-sponsored pool of all Norwegian 
publishing houses—has signed contracts for a number of American books 
specially recommended by OWI. 

The Section also keeps the American Ambassador Near the Norwegian 
Government fully informed of all OWI activities involving Norway ; and at his 
request the Section chief prepares a weekly report summarizing material on 
conditions and attitudes in Norway and among Norwegians in Britain. 


27 


In general, the other foreign language sections of the Policy Division follow 
similar lines ; each, however, modifies its attack according to the job at hand. 
Thus, for example, the German Section has prepared reports on : 

German books published in Switzerland and Sweden since the 
outbreak of the war and considered ideologically suitable for 
Germany ; 

A black list of German authors, and of German publishers ; 

A complete list of German publishers ; 

A gray list of German authors ; 

A list of anti-American and anti-British books published in 
Germany between 1939 and 1944. 

And among other things, it contributed original writing to publications 
for Germany, translated American books and booklets, provided part of Radio 
Luxembourg’s personnel, and prepared a newspaper, Sternenbanner , (Star 
Spangled Banner), for air distribution to German troops and civilians. 
(Sternenbanner was discontinued not long after D-day, to be replaced by a joint 
Anglo-American newspaper for Germany to which previous reference has been 
made.) In a sample month, April 1944, 45,000,000 copies of Sternenbanner 
reached German hands. As a typical comment, Himmler issued the following 
decree : 

Leaflets and other publications dropped by the enemy or intro¬ 
duced into the Reich by other means, as well as other publications 
of all kinds directed against the State and distributed to disquiet the 
population or to affect its wartime morale, must immediately be 
surrendered to the nearest police station. Everyone coming into the 
possession of $uch a publication must surrender it. Anyone acting 
contrary to this decree will be sentenced to prison under Section 92B 
of the Reich Penal Code, unless other regulations provide for more 
severe punishment. 

The Commander of the 2nd German Panzer Division, in secret instruc¬ 
tions dated July 18, 1944, reflected this attitude in the following : 

Last night several members of the Division deserted to the 
enemy. . . . The enemy who, in spite of superiority in men and 
weapons, cannot break through our positions, yet inundates us with 
a flood of leaflets. By means of lies ... he wants to persuade our 
comrades to desert. We must prevent this venomous material from 
falling into the hands of irresolute comrades. 

During 1944, the Surveys Section devoted itself to the task of scientifically 
assessing the attitude toward the Allies and toward the Allied war effort among 
civilians in liberated areas. For the information and guidance of U.S. Army 
Civil Affairs officers and other military authorities as well as for the several 
Allied information agencies, Surveys checked the animosities, apathies and 
inadequate understandings in the freed areas of Europe. 

Under PWD 4 survey teams arrived in Normandy thirty days after D-day ; 
the first survey, made at the special request of Lieut.-General Walter Bedell 


Smith, SHAEF Deputy Chief of Staff, aimed to discover the true feelings 
toward the Allied invasion among people on the Cotentin peninsula. As an 
outgrowth of conflicting stories in the British press, which had ranged from 
saying that the Normans were overwhelmed with joy to one article headlined, 
“ Six out of ten of these people would like to slit our throats,” the survey made 
a careful sample of reactions among a representative number of French civilians 
and refuted charges of widespread hostility among the population. Nearly all 
the Normans, it discovered, shared a sense of relief and gratitude toward the 
liberating forces ; one in five frankly registered some complaints against the 
troops and the Survey report referred these complaints to the proper military 
authorities. The Section also surveys and evaluates audience reaction to 
ABSIE broadcasts and OWI publications. 


THE BRITISH DIVISION 

Among the several OWI units, the British Division is perhaps most 
typical of possible American information services after the peace. Its structure 
consists of three main branches : a news room, a long-range media section, 
and a reference library. Its functions, entirely separate from those of psycho¬ 
logical warfare groups, are designed to fill a need which, although less obvious, 
is just as great. 

The basic ideas on which the Division was founded reflect the philosophy 
guiding all OWI’s information services. As noted earlier in this report, the 
Director has pointed out that the Division is neither a press agent nor a good¬ 
will agency. He also outlined three basic essentials of operation : 

1. In order to be responsible at home and respected abroad, the Division 
must work under the close supervision of the American Ambassador. A 
government information agency which lacked such supervision could not win 
the confidence of the community in which it worked and could not be certain 
that its day-by-day interpretations of policy were correct. 

2. The Division must appear as little as possible in public. Its task is to supply 
material to British agencies, public and private, who then use the material in 
their own way and under their own names. If the Ministry of Education, or a 
book publisher, or a newspaper, or a member of Parliament, uses material 
supplied by the Divison, it has greater weight and authenticity with the British 
community. The same material reaching the public under the name of the 
British Division would have far less effect. 

3. Much of the most arduous work of the Division must be negative in char¬ 
acter ; it must consist of preventing errors and misinterpretations from reaching 
the public. It is far better to head off an untrue statement than to catch up 
with it after it has been made. The members of the Division, therefore, must 
cultivate such relations with the British public that they are likely to be con¬ 
sulted in advance. 

During the months before D-day, hundreds of thousands of Americans 
lived and worked in hundreds of British communities. They visited British 
homes, frequented British pubs, made British friends, married British girls— 
and talked unceasingly about America. They intensified British curiosity 
already aroused by the fact that the United States was a military and political 
ally ; they stirred Britons to find out all they could about America. 


29 


At the same time, the difficulties of life in wartime Britain frustrated 
Britons’ strong and widespread desire to understand American ways. News¬ 
papers, books and magazines were restricted in size and limited in quantity ; 
currency restrictions and shortage of shipping space hindered the importation 
of informative material from America. 

During the crucial year of 1944, the Division strove to adapt its output 
of material and services to fit the peculiar needs of the British people. Before 
D-day, Britain and America alike were mainly preoccupied with the formidable 
task of invading Europe. With the military successes which followed, and 
with the outcome of the war no longer in doubt, the British began wondering 
about the attitude of the United States towards the problems of peace. Con¬ 
fronted with the overwhelming necessity of regaining export markets, the 
British public became acutely aware of potential American competition. 
Remembering America’s withdrawal from world affairs twenty-five years ago, 
the British wondered whether it could happen again. And, with the presi¬ 
dential election having dominated American political news during the summer 
and autumn months, the British sought to understand the peculiarities of the 
American electoral system. 

It was a main task of the British Division in 1944 to dispel British un¬ 
certainties about the postwar world with factual information about the American 
attitude in matters of mutual concern. In matters relating to the election, the 
Division was, as befitting an official agency, completely impartial ; it presented the 
speeches and positions of both major candidates with equal force and candor. 

While these major events created major problems, the day-by-day work 
of providing information unrelated to critical issues or current affairs con¬ 
tinued with the Division’s three main sections operating each in its own way 
in its own specialized areas. 

First general library established by the U.S. Government outside the 
continental United States, the American Library has served as a pilot project 
for other Office of War Information libraries and information centers. The 
Library has steadily grown until it is now the principal—and in many ways 
the only—source of recent U.S. publications in Britain. Yet, although by the 
end of 1944 it was subscribing to more than 500 American magazines and its 
collection included some 8,000 books and 10,000 U.S. Government documents 
and pamphlets, the Library has striven to be a dynamic source of information 
rather than a static repository. It has developed relations with some 900 
organizations and societies and with some 350 business firms, with 150 British 
libraries, with most of the schools, colleges, training colleges and universities 
in Great Britain, as well as with the educational branches of the British Army, 
Navy, Air Lorces and Home Defense. 

Oxford dons and buck privates of the American Army sit side by side in 
its Embassy reading room. Among its clientele, from which it draws approxi¬ 
mately 1,000 visitors each month, there are U.S. Government officials and 
members of the Allied armed forces, cabinet ministers, members of Parliament, 
editors and staff writers of influential magazines and newspapers, educational 
authorities and similar leaders in nearly every walk of life. 


30 


As its name implies, the Long-Range Media Section concerns itself with 
long-range activities designed to direct a flow of basic information about the 
United States into institutional, cultural and educational channels in Great 
Britain. This it has done in books, periodicals, exhibits, lectures and personal 
contact with British leaders in virtually every field of social interest. 

The Section has continuously arranged interviews and discussions between 
British and American officials, businessmen and specialists in many fields. It 
has steadily been called upon to co-operate with the armed forces in public 
relations. An example of such assistance occurred in 1944, when the Section 
arranged for a British committee to promote the provincial tour of the Irving 
Berlin show, This Is the Army. The tour netted over $320,000, all of which 
was distributed among British service charities. 

The Section operates in other ways. Under a formula worked out the 
preceding year, His Majesty’s Stationery Office during 1944 published such 
official U.S. documents as : The United States in the World Economy , United 
States Navy: Report Covering Combat Operations up to March 1st , 1944, 17th 
Quarterly Report to Congress on Lend-Lease Operations. Because certain 
documents—though important—would not justify republication in Britain, the 
Section worked out another formula this year whereby H.M.S.O. sells and 
distributes material issued and manufactured by the U.S. Government Printing 
Office in Washington. In addition, the Section has been instrumental in 
supporting the requests of private British publishers for special allotments of 
war-rationed paper to publish editions of such significant American books as 
Ten Years in Japan by Joseph C. Grew, and Lend-Lease : Weapon for Victory , 
by Edwards R. Stettinius, Jr. 

The. Long-Range Media Section has helped in spreading the story of 
America with exhibitions : such as Young America , a pictorial account of 
the life of young people in the United States, which opened at Westminster 
School and later toured the provinces and American Artists Report the War , 
at the National Gallery. Three hundred projectors on loan to the Ministry 
of Education are being used to show film strips about America in British 
schools. An exhibition of American historical and contemporary art at the 
Tate Gallery has been arranged through the National Gallery at Washington. 
Weekly photographic exhibits on the Pacific war are displayed in co-operation 
with the British Admiralty, at 300 forces stations. 

Americans of recognized standing in such fields as housing, rural land 
use, social welfare, and labor have been brought to England to tell of American 
problems and activities in these fields. 

During the 1942 American elections, cable copy for the most part reached 
the British Division News Room by hand delivery from commercial wire- 
company offices in London. The staff was small and facilities in general 
were scanty ; as a result some questioners eager to keep abreast of affairs in 
the United States had to be turned away. 

In 1944, a battery of teleprinters operating from New York and 
Washington kept a steady stream of election returns flowing across News 
Room desks for editing and teletype relay to the four British news agencies 


31 


handling foreign news—Reuters, British United Press, Associated Press, Ltd. 
and Exchange Telegraph—and by hand to all national dailies and to provincial 
papers having London offices. A few hours later, in mimeographed form, 
this material went to a selected list of clients—magazine editors, government 
officials and others able to profit by detailed returns from the crucial balloting 
in America. Thus the News Room of the British Division supplemented— 
but did not compete with—the commercial news agencies. In this typical 
operation abundant and detailed background information was supplied on a 
vital American process. 

In no phase of its operation is it a News Room function to cover spot 
news ; that is the job of the commercial agencies. The News Room’s purpose 
in 1944 was a dual one : first, to distribute significant material which would 
not reach London via any other medium in time to be of use—such as advance 
texts of official speeches, documents and other matters of public interest ; 
second, to supplement such material with a steady flow of background informa¬ 
tion related to the day’s news from America. 

For instance, the News Room was for several weeks the only agency 
able to supply complete texts of agreements reached at the Chicago International 
Civil Aviation Conference in sufficient quantity to satisfy the needs of inter¬ 
ested officials and newspapers ; similarly, only the News Room could give 
wide and immediate circulation to the report of James F. Byrnes, former 
Director of War Mobilization, on America’s achievements during two years 
of war. Likewise, the News Room circulated—in advance of publication 
day—much of the text of Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius’s book 
Lend-Lease : Weapon for Victory. Staff editors pooled their resources to 
make a careful abridgement. After having had the selected pages photostated, 
they bound them into volumes by hand—office boys, stenographers, editors 
and section chief working in an improvised assembly line—and rushed copies 
to press offices. As a result, virtually every important newspaper in the 
United Kingdom featured the book on publication day. 


USIS ON THU CONTINENT 

In the autumn of 1944 American and French military authorities signed 
an agreement which provided a basis for the conduct of civil affairs and related 
matters in France, defined an “ interior zone ” and—in line with the prevailing 
trend away from psychological warfare and toward informational services— 
resulted in plans to retire PWD-SHEAF from activity among the French 
civilian population. This transfer, formally effective on October 15, 1944, 
actually occurred in fact about a fortnight later, when the two civilian agencies, 
OWI and MOI, took over most of the functions of PWD in France. 

From June 1944 until that time—as earlier pages have shown—PWD 
had been doing a twofold job in France : waging psychological warfare at the 
front ; and, as the Allied Information Service, bringing information to the 
liberated French people as the Allied armies moved eastward. This work 
it carried on with the full co-operation of the existing French authorities and 


32 


with the primary purpose of helping the French to re-establish their own 
informational services. 

When OWI established its headquarters in Paris, it did so as the United 
States Information Service (USIS) for the reason that it faced a task of long 
enough probable duration to make the words “ War Information ” inappro¬ 
priate. As an informational service, it modeled itself basically on the British 
Division but at the same time adapted the various phases of its operation to 
meet the needs of newly liberated France. In its turn, Paris USIS also served 
as a proving-ground for plans in preparation for OWI outposts in other 
European nations—Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Norway and Denmark. 

On October 20, five days after the transfer of PWD activities to OWI 
and MOI, the Paris USIS opened the London Publications Division’s Exhibit 
Section display, Photos Documentaires de la Guerre Mondiale. Next day, 
some 6,000 Parisians crowded into the exhibition ; so desperately eager were 
the French to see straight news pictures after four years of German propa¬ 
ganda distortions that gendarmes and MPs were called to establish a queue 
system and prevent overcrowding. A graphic presentation of America, Britain 
and Russia at war, the exhibit gave most of its Parisian spectators their first 
opportunity to see how the U.S. Army is organized, the vast distances over 
which American supplies must travel, the intense preparation and incredible 
quantities of equipment needed for the invasion, the power of the U.S. fleet, 
and the extent of the American effort in the Pacific—a matter which the French 
found especially significant because, until after their liberation, they had 
scarcely realized that the United States is also helping to fight another full- 
scale war halfway round the world. 

During the sixty-six days the show ran, each spectator spent an average 
of forty-five minutes in the exhibit, which played to a total attendance of over 
200,000. The section prepared eleven “ road shows ” of the same exhibit : 
eight in French, of which six were for France, one for Belgium and one for 
Luxembourg ; and three in Dutch for the rest of Belgium and for Holland. 
Of those opening before the year’s end, the show at Limoges averaged 1,000 
daily attendance, at Bordeaux 1,500 and at Toulouse 3,000 ; plans laid for 1945 
included openings at Clermont-Ferrand, Lille, Lyons, Marseilles, Poitiers, 
St. Etienne, Brussels and Tours.* 

At the start of the new year, the Exhibit Section had completed pre¬ 
liminary layouts on other exhibit subjects including the U.S. Air Forces, the 
war in the Pacific and Com Z—The American Armies in France, of which 200 
traveling versions reproduced on paper are to be distributed. 


* Attendance statistics for shows opening after January 1, 1945, dramatized once 
again the European hunger for news of the outside world, especially of America. 
For example, at Lille (prewar population 200,000) daily attendance averaged 3,500 ; 
Lyons (prewar population.579,000) .. .. .. .. 2,000 

Marseilles (prewar population 800,000) .. .. .. .. 3,000 

Tours (prewar population 78,000) .. .. .. .. 1,500 

and at St. Etienne (191,000) 17,000 persons visited the show in four and one-half days. 
At Brussels, observers called an augmented version of the exhibit the most popular 
effort of its kind ever seen in Belgium ; 180,000 persons visited it during its first three 
weeks. 





The Com Z show—a far more ambitious job than the first exhibit—also 
has a more pressing and significant public relations purpose, outgrowth of 
the situation facing American soldiers after the first raptures of liberation 
had passed and had been replaced by cool French appraisal of a fact of military 
necessity : that millions of Allied troops would pass through France and 
would therefore—as they moved eastward across Germany—unavoidably 
disrupt French transport and other phases of French economy as their supplies 
progressed toward the front. 

This situation gave collaborators and other enemy agents a prime oppor¬ 
tunity to spread anti-American slanders : that Americans were pampering 
German prisoners, stealing French property, taking food out of French 
mouths, etc. American visitors, returning to the United States after brief 
French tours, played directly into enemy hands by giving statements to the 
American press which quoted them as saying that the French were living in 
comfort and plenty. The French press picked up these stories and widely 
reprinted them at the beginning of the coldest and hungriest winter Frenchmen 
have ever known. The Com Z show, therefore, aims to disabuse the French 
of all suspicion that the Americans are in France for any other purpose than 
to defeat the Germans ; and to show the French what U.S. arms have accom¬ 
plished and will accomplish in terms of France’s own economy. 

Meanwhile, during the two and one-half months of 1944 in which Paris 
USIS had been in existence, its various sections applied themselves to jobs 
roughly similar to those of corresponding units in London. Thus, during the 
first two weeks of December : 

The Press Section placed 72 items in Paris dailies and 27 in Paris 
weeklies and provided background material to a daily average of 
fifteen journalists visiting the Section library ; 

The Photo Section issued 226 pictures through the two agencies 
at that time operating in France ; filled 70 special photo requests ; and 
placed 76 pictures in Paris dailies ; 

The Radio Section prepared more than a score of broadcasts 
for ABSIE ; did one daily, one weekly and several special broadcasts 
for Radio Diffusion Frangaise ; 

The Provincial Press Section began regular service to papers 
outside of Paris. Its traveling representative visited dailies and 
outstanding weeklies in Dijon-Magon, Lyons, Grenoble, Nice, 
Marseilles, Montpellier, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Poitiers and a number 
of smaller cities, where he distributed packets of pictures and 
documentation material and reported to Paris on their special needs. 
Regular mail service of Nouvelles d'Amerique —a daily bulletin of 
American news averaging ten or a dozen items—and background 
material and pictures began going out to fifty provincial papers. 

Working within their specialized fields, other units have arranged assist¬ 
ance to French scientists, long cut off from news of recent developments ; 
investigated the possibility of sending small groups of scientists and teachers of 
English on trips to the United States ; filled requests for American lecturers ; 


34 


arranged showings of American entertainment and newsreel films throughout 
France ; and—with ABSIE and BBC co-operation—staged specialized cam¬ 
paigns such as that for the recovery of “ jerricans,” five-gallon gasoline con¬ 
tainers which the Germans had left scattered across the countryside. 

In addition, two Information Service Units opened in Paris, with others 
scheduled to appear in key points throughout France. Stockpiled and staffed 
in London, the units consist of books, pamphlets, pictures and feature material 
in the hands of personnel especially trained to document the American story 
not only for specialized clients such as journalists, tyjt for Europeans generally. 

THE WAY AHEAD 

Important as information services have been in keeping the Allies aware 
of one another's activities during the war in Europe, they seem likely to be 
even more important after the fighting has ceased. 

With hostilities in progress, the Allies are united in a common aim : to 
defeat the Germans as speedily and economically as possible. It is axiomatic, 
however, that when allies stop fighting a common foe they begin to turn critical 
eyes upon one another. Thus, with the end of war in Europe, the interests 
of each Allied nation—rather than the common aim—may tend to take a 
paramount place in national thinking. Areas of possible friction have already 
shown themselves : France is worried about her position as a world power, 
Britain about recovering her foreign trade, and so on. The maintenance of 
peace, therefore, may depend to a significant degree upon the continuing 
exchange of information on national cultures and aspirations ; for a long 
time to come, Europeans will not only wish but will need to learn all they can 
about America through such agencies as OWI's London and Paris offices. 

The need for such information is reflected in a year-end poll in the United 
States, which revealed that many United States citizens were shockingly ill- 
informed even about their closest Allies. If this is true about America, which 
has press, publications, radio and films as free and active as any nation has 
ever had, the need for widespread and accurate information must be im¬ 
measurably more pressing in France, for example, whose informational sources 
the Nazis have dominated for four years. The poll discovered that : 

At a time when Britain’s food scarcity was being widely publicized, only 
69% of the Americans questioned in the poll knew that England was not 
primarily a food-producing nation ; 

Only 38% of American farmers knew that, next to the United States, 
Canada was the largest wheat-producer in the Western Hemisphere ; 

Only 45% of high-school students and 40% of factory workers knew 
that in Russia everyone does not receive the same pay whatever his job may be. 

In addition, it must be borne in mind that commercial sources of infor¬ 
mation—such as films, radio, magazines and newspapers—are by their very 
nature governed less by deeply felt considerations of what Europeans ought to 
know about America than by the necessity of surviving in competition with 


35 


rival agencies. The 'harm that Hollywood’s wave of gangster films, for 
example, did to the cause of America abroad is still perceptible in Britain and 
France. The same is true of commercial news photos released in foreign 
countries and of correspondents’ stories filed from the United States. 
Sensationalism often displaced good sense ; so that the American backbone 
of idealism and solid achievement was scarcely visible beneath the flashy outer 
fabric of penthouse civilization, spectacular divorces, murders, zoot suits and 
other racy but unrepresentative items in the era stretching from flag-pole sitters 
and marathon dancers to collegiate goldfish swallowers and jitterbugs. 

Requirements for informational services to Germany can hardly be 
estimated at present. With more than a decade of Nazi indoctrination to be 
erased, the Allies face a formidable task in bringing the German people back 
within the bounds of civilization. To do this, they will have to supply Germany 
not only with news of day-to-day events after a surrender, but with detailed 
factual documentation of all that Germany has been responsible for since 
1939 ; of the horrors which their armies committed in the breadth of Europe 
between Russia and the English Channel ; of the reasons why, in the interests 
of civilization itself, Allied bombers have had to destroy German cities ; of 
the necessity to keep Germany under close military and civil supervision until 
adequate numbers of the German people show themselves able to conduct 
their national affairs in a manner acceptable to men of good will in the rest of 
the world. 

With the conviction that the world’s own good requires the world to hear 
the truth about America, OWI looks forward to an opportunity to tell the 
American story as long as there is need for that story to be told. 


36 


ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION AND 

PERSONNEL 


As Qf December 1944, there were 1,556 
persons employed by the OWI in the 
European Theater of Operations. This 
total includes 1,191 employees for OWI 
in London and 365 for OWI in Paris and 
Psychological Warfare Division, Supreme 
Headquarters Allied Expeditionary 
Force. 

The Administrative Division in London 
employed 401, 25.7 per cent of the total 
personnel. This rather high percentage 
of administrative personnel is caused by 
the fact that overseas administrative 
offices must perform many adminis¬ 
trative activities not normally performed 
by an executive agency in the United 


States. The Division employs 29 tele¬ 
phone operators, 58 drivers for auto 
transport (excluding 11 truck drivers) 
serving 12 locations in London and a 
number of points outside of London such 
as army depots, ports, and British 
Government offices. The Division in 
addition employs 42 guards and 48 
messengers, needed to protect and 
service the many OWI premises, and 30 
part-time cleaners for maintenance of 
all OWI locations in London. These 
large service groups, excluding their 
supervisors and clerical help, constitute 
over half the personnel of the Adminis¬ 
trative Division. 


OWI Personnel Employed in the European Theater of Operations 

December 1944 


Division 

American 

Locally 

hired 

Total 

Office of Director . 

. 13 


13 

Administrative . 

. 36 

365 

401 

Communications. 

. 27 

33 

60 

Communications Control . 

. 14 

1 

15 

Films . 

. 35 

48 

83 

Pictures. 

. 18 

61 

79 

Policy. 

. 54 

48 

102 

Publications ... 

. 43 

38 

81 

Radio . 

. 131 

133 

264 

British . 

. 30 

63 

93 

French (Paris) . 

. 79 

134 

213 

Psychological Warfare Division, SHAEF ... 

. 142 

10 

152 


TOTAL ... 622 

934 

1,556 


Destinations Receiving Material from London 


Accra, Gold Coast 
""Algiers, Algeria 
Azores 
Bari, Italy 
Berne, Switzerland 
Beirut, Syria 
Baghdad, Iraq 
Bombay, India 


Brazzaville, Fr. Equ. Africa 
Belfast, Ireland 
""Brussels, Belgium 
""Cairo, Egypt 
Canary Islands 
Casablanca, Fr. Morocco 
Chengtu, China 
Chungking, China 


37 















* 


♦Dakar, Fr. W. Africa 
Dublin, Ireland 

Freetown, Sierra Leone, W. Africa 
Helsinki, Finland 
Honolulu, Hawaii 
Istanbul, Turkey 
Johannesburg, S. Africa 
Kuibyshev, U.S.S.R. 

♦Karachi, India 
Kunming, China 
Lagos, Nigeria 
Leopoldville, Belgian Congo 
Lourengo Marques, Mozambique 
♦Madrid, Spain 
Madagascar 
Mauritius 
Monrovia, Liberia 
Moscow, U.S.S.R. 

Luxembourg 


♦Naples, Italy 
New Caledonia 
New Delhi, India 
♦New York, U.S.A. 
Ottawa, Canada 
♦Paris, France 
Reykjavik, Iceland 
Rome, Italy 
♦Stockholm, Sweden 
Sydney, Australia 
Tahiti 

Tangier, Algeria 
Teheran, Iran 
Tunis, Tunisia 
♦Washington, D.C., U.S.A. 
Wellington, New Zealand 
Barcelona, Spain 
♦Lisbon, Portugal 
Athens, Greece 


•Main points to which materials are shipped more or less regularly. 


COHHUNICATIONS DIVISION 


The Communications Division transmits 
and receives “press” and administrative 
messages between various OWI out¬ 
posts, New York and Washington via 
the facilities of the American and 
British common commercial carriers and 
the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Material 
originating in England and transmitted 
to Washington and New York consists 
of Allied, neutral and enemy broadcasts 
monitored by the BBC and made avail¬ 
able to OWI, and foreign press com¬ 
ment received from the Ministry of 
Information and OWI outposts. Material 
transmitted from London to other 
OWI outposts consists chiefly of 
“press” material received from New 
York for retransmission. 

By retransmitting or relaying material 
received from New York over the 
British Cable & Wireless, Ltd. facilities, 
the Division effects substantial econo¬ 


mies. In December,.an average of 21,000 
words daily were relayed from New 
York to other OWI outposts, including 
Ankara, Baghdad, Berne, Bombay, Cairo, 
Calcutta, Chungking, Dublin, Istanbul, 
Johannesburg, Lisbon, Madrid, Moscow, 
Paris, and Stockholm. Total December 
wordage relayed to the outposts was 
654,205. If the same wordage had been 
addressed in New York directly to the 
outposts, it would have cost $113, 
596.08. By relaying through London, 
it cost $14,679.51, a saving to OWI of 
$98,916.57. 

Wordage transmitted to London, 
New York, Washington and OWI out¬ 
posts rose from an average of about 
60,000 words daily in January 1944 to an 
average of approx.. lately 156,000 words 
daily in December. This included PWD 
transmissions. The December break¬ 
down follows : 


38 



To New York and Washington via 

U.S. Signal Corps (OWI) . 809,282 

To New York and Washington via 
Western Union (OWI) . 590,005 

To France, Belgium and Holland via 

blind radio Morse code (PWD) . 930,000 

To Italy and the Balkans via blind 

radio Morse code (PWD). 620,000 

To Radio Luxembourg and Germany 

via blind radio Morse code (PWD) 350,000 

TO ABSIE and OWI Picture 
Division, basic news report via 
teletype (OWI) . 620,000 

To Cable & Wireless Ltd., press 
and administrative messages from 
New York for relay to other out¬ 
posts and material originating in 
London (OWI) . 385,820 


EUROPEAN 

This News Room is operated by per¬ 
sonnel from OWI, the British Ministry 
of Information and Political Intelligence 
Department, the Belgian Information 
Service, and the U.S. Army. The 
Division’s basic news file is sent to the 
other OWI London divisions to assist in 
producing broadcasts, airborne news¬ 
papers, newsreels, leaflets. A complete 
world news file is beamed to liberated 
areas in English, French and Dutch by 
Morse wireless and voice broadcast 
which is used by PWD monitoring 
teams in the field to service newspapers, 
radio stations, etc. The news file is also 
beamed to PWD-AFHQ in Italy for 
press and radio. Monitored reports of 
enemy broadcasts and a daily summary 
of the German press are sent to SHAEF, 
Radio Luxembourg, and the 21st, 12th 
and 6th Army Groups. The Press Ser¬ 
vice is serviced by the Communications 
Division. 

In ten months of service, the News 
Section of the Division, using 17 tele- 


To Great Northern Telegraph Co., 
Ltd., press and administrative 


messages from New York and 
London for Stockholm (OWI). 71,851 

To Central Telegraph Office of Post 
Office, press and administrative mes¬ 
sages from New York and London 
for Dublin (OWI) . 31,420 

To Central Telegraph Office of Post 
Office, press material for blind radio 
Morse code scheduled transmissions 

to outposts . 165,347 

To OWI British Division at Embassy, 
press material from OWI New 
York. 155,000 

To Reuters, Exchange Telegraph, 

Associated Press and United Press, 
texts, etc. cabled from OWI New 
York. 124,000 


NEWS ROOM 

printer machines which run almost con¬ 
tinuously and bring in an average of 

I, 200,000 words daily, hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of additional news pages and 
other sources, has produced : 

130 specialized news stories daily by Basic 
News. 

40,000 words daily output by Basic News, 
totaling approximately 12,000,000 words in 
10 months. 

18,000 words daily filed by Basic News to 
Mediterranean and Balkan areas since 
September 5, totaling nearly 4,000,000 words. 

24,000 words daily sent out by regional de¬ 
partments totaling over 3,000,000 words in 5 
months. This is broken down as follows : 

II, 000 words daily in French for Belgium. 
10,000 words daily in Dutch and English for 
Holland. 

2,000 words daily in English for France. 

1,000 words daily in French for France. 

7,500 words daily voice-cast at dictation 
speed by regional departments, totaling more 
than 1,250,000 words in six months. 

7,000 words daily to Germany and Luxem¬ 
bourg. 

Total of files direct from News Section 
to the European continent runs well 
over 8,000,000 words. 


39 













ItADBO DIVISION 


The Division is charged with four main 
tasks : 

1. The operation of ABSIE. 

2. Maintenance of liaison with BBC, 
in relation to programs originated by 
OWI New York, and relayed over BBC 
facilities. 

3. Maintenance of liaison with radio 
representatives of liberated countries 
to establish exchange programs between 
those countries and the U.S. in the war 
and postwar period. 

4. Recording special events in 22 lan¬ 
guages which are sent to the U.S. to be 
broadcast over OWI shortwave facilities 
there. 

Since ABSIE (American Broadcasting 
Station in Europe) first went on the air, 
April 30, 1944, at 5.30 p.m., it has broad¬ 
cast 8 hours daily without interruption. 
In an average month, ABSIE originates 
682 programs, of which 620 are fed to 
the London transmitters, and 62 to New 
York, for a total on-the-air time of 232J 
hours. From April 30 to December 31, 
1944, 8,304 fifteen-minute broadcasts 
were sent out over ABSIE. In addition, 
36 Austrian programs were broadcast 
for the New York OWI operations. 

ABSIE broadcasts daily in the following 


POLIO V 

Over-all OWI policy originates in 
Washington. The Division’s task is to 
maintain close and effective liaison with 
OWI Washington, OWI New York, 
SHAEF, and the various Allied govern- 

Propaganda 

The Section reports on enemy propa¬ 
ganda, analyses enemy propaganda direc¬ 
tives, and relays daily news of enemy 
propaganda to policy and operations 
departments in London, Washington, 
and New York. 


languages : German, French, Danish, 
Norwegian, Dutch, Flemish and English. 

Language Breakdown for ABSIE Programs 


Language Percent 

English newscasts . 13.2 

French news and other programs (a) 26.7 

Belgian programs in Flemish and 

French. 3.4 

Dutch news and programs . 3.4 

Danish news and programs. 10.0 

Norwegian news and programs. 6.7 

German, including programs to 

Austria (b). 30.0 

Music programs, including bilingual 

news summary (c). 6.6 

Broadcasts are composed of the 
following elements : 


1. Orders from General Eisenhower’s 
headquarters to people of the occupied 
countries and warnings to the enemy. 

2. Straight news of the fighting fronts to 
make the enemy understand the inevitability 
of his defeat and to give people of the 
occupied and unoccupied European countries 
the story of America’s share in the war. 

3. Feature material to reinforce straight 
news and to project the part played by America 
in the war. 


(a) French programs of 8 units include IJ units daily of 
music material 

(b) German programs of 9 units include 2 units daily of 
music material 

(c) Music programs do not include the above French 
and German music contribution 


DIVISION 

merits on policy matters, OWI’s assign¬ 
ments come from the Chief Executive, 
through the Department of State, 
the Army, and the Navy, and from 
SHAEF. 

Analysis Section 

250,000 words from the 1,250,000 words 
monitored by the BBC are scanned daily. 
This material is reduced to a 

20,000 word daily report, cabled to New 
York and Washington. 

30,000 words of enemy written material is 
received from continental reading bureaus 


40 










daily and is digested and made available to 
Washington, New York and London offices. 

Variety of special reports are prepared : 

Summary of enemy explanations for with¬ 
drawal on the eastern front. 

Intelligence 

In October 1944, the Military Intelli¬ 
gence Section and the Operations In¬ 
telligence Section were merged to form 
the present Intelligence Section. The 
section publishes daily notes on 
German and French military affairs and 
weekly summaries on German and 
international affairs. These provide 
background material for ABSIE, PWD- 
SHAEF, G-5, USSTAF, Office of Strategic 
Services, the British Political Intelligence 
Department, the BBC, and the State 
Department missions to various coun- 

Policy 

The Division contains the following 
Policy Sections : German, Dutch, 
Czech, Polish, Scandinavian, and 
French. Each section is charged with 
the interpretation of OWI policy 
according to central and regional direc¬ 
tives issued in Washington and with 

Surveys 

The Section was established to assess 
attitudes toward the Allies and the 
Allied war effort among civilians in 
liberated areas, to study the effective¬ 
ness of Allied informational output 
addressed to liberated areas, to study 
the informational desires of liberated 


FILMS 

The Division is responsible for film 
liaison with the British Ministry of 
Information and the other Allied 
governments, the distribution in the 
European Theater of short propaganda 
films made by the Army, the OWI and 
other U.S. Government agencies, and 


Summary of Germany’s food problem. 

Report on Japanese reaction to the liberation 
of France. 

Survey of German propaganda to workers. 
Handbook of Germany’s main propaganda 
themes. 

Section 

tries. These notes cover such topics 
as the ground war, frictions and crises 
in the German army, German military 
personalities, etc. In addition, a secret 
report is prepared weekly on the 
German military, political, economic, 
and psychological situation. The section 
translates an average of 100 captured 
enemy documents per month, screens 
daily 200,000 words of intelligence 
reports Feceived by OWI, airpouches 
about 250 documents monthly to Wash¬ 
ington, and cables 8,000 words monthly 
to Washington and New York. 

Sections 

basic plans for the specific countries. 
The sections provide policy guidance 
for other OWI London divisions— 
ABSIE, Publications, Films, Pictures— 
and maintafn liaison with the govern¬ 
ments of their specific countries, and 
PWD-SHAEF. 

Section 

people, and to survey opinion among 
German prisoners of war. Surveys 
were made in Normandy soon after 
D-day, and in the rest of France follow¬ 
ing liberation. Results of these surveys 
serve to guide OWI policy in London, 
New York and Washington. 


DIVISION 

the creation of a stock of commercial 
films, dubbed and subtitled in various 
languages, for distribution on the con¬ 
tinent after liberation. Late in 1943, a 
fourth responsibility was added : the 
production of two weekly newsreels, 
United Newsreel (London edition) and 


41 


Free World Newsreel , and occasional 
shorts in collaboration with other Allied 
agencies. Early in 1944, the Psycho¬ 
logical Warfare Division, Supreme Head¬ 
quarters Allied Expeditionary Force 
asked the Division for co-operation in 


their program. Film officers were sent 
to PWD from the Division to help open 
cinemas on the continent, impound 
enemy films, facilitate distribution of 
commercial and official films, and direct 
mobile film units. 


Newsreels 


By December 31, 1944, 32 issues of the 
London edition of the United Newsreel, 
distributed in Allied and neutral coun¬ 


tries, had been shipped to 21 countries 
in the following languages : 


English 

Arabic 

Italian 

Chinese 

Turkish 

Portuguese 


German 

French 

Afrikaans 

Czech 

Slovak 


233 issues of six target-area editions 
of the Free World Newsreel, distributed 
in liberated and occupied countries, had 
been shipped to 6 countries in the 
following languages : 

Italian Flemish 

French Norwegian 

Dutch Danish 

Belgian-French 

These newsreels are produced jointly 
by OWI, the British MOI, and a repre¬ 
sentative of the country to which they 
are sent. 

In a typical month (December 1944) 4 
issues of the United Newsreel are made 


up and dispatched from London to 22 
locations in 17 countries in the following 
languages: 


English 

Arabic 

Italian 

German 

Contents of the 4 


French 

Portuguese 

Chinese 

Turkish 

December issues 


were: 


1 

Rush repairs on supply ships 
Military police 
Soldiers vote 
Advance in Germany 

2 

Eisenhower in Brussels 
Red Ball highway 

Air and ground blows on the Reich 

3 

Western front 

Labor leaders plan for the future 
Eisenhower tours front 
Allies unlock Antwerp gates 

4 

French honor American heroes 

American soldiers rebuild London’s bombed 

houses 

Supreme Allied Commander sends greetings 
United States representatives inspect front 
Western front reaches the Rhine 

In the same month, 20 issues of the Free 
World Newsreel were issued and dis¬ 
patched to four countries in the follow¬ 
ing languages: 

Italian Flemish 

French Danish 

Dutch 

The OWI has cameramen covering the 
continent for its newsreels and docu¬ 
mentaries. Between August and Decem¬ 
ber 1944, 58 film news stories were 
photographed by OWI cameramen. 
Stocks of commercial films have been 
built up in France, Holland, and Belgium. 
Preparations for stockpiles in other 
countries are under way. 


Short Films 


Welcome to Britain. Produced with the 
MOI, the British War.Office, with U.S. Army 
approval and help. This film shows U.S. 
troops how to behave in the United 
Kingdom. 

French Town. Produced with MOI. The 
story of the renascence of a liberated French 
village. 

Port of Cherbourg. Produced by OWI for 


PWD distribution. The Allied campaign to 
liberate Cherbourg. 

Bayeux. Produced with MOI. Impact of the 
war on Bayeux. 

Second Armored Division. Produced and 
specially edited by OWI telling the story of 
the French Division through the 'iberation 
of Paris. This film was presented to the 
French Government. 


42 


Norwegian Army Film. Produced with the 
Norwegian Ministry of Information. Tells 
how the Norwegians in exile formed an army, 
fought with the Allies, and prepared for the 
liberation of their own country. 

Norwegian Merchant Marine. Produced 
with the British and Norwegian Ministries of 
Information. The story of the Norwegian 
merchant navy fighting with the United 
Nations. 

Salute to France. Started by the OWI in 


PICTURE 

The Division supplies the picture needs 
of all OWI divisions in London and on 
the continent and distributes to the 
press of the United Kingdom and the 
continent all the U.S. official pictures 
originating in the European Theater as 

Production and Distribution of Prints 

38,000 negatives 
'800,000 prints 

/ 

150 pictures monthly radiophotoed to Stock¬ 
holm, Rome, Lisbon, Cairo, Berne, Bombay, 
Istanbul, Johannesburg, Moscow, Melbourne 

118,000 plastic plates dispatched from London 
to OWI and State Department offices through¬ 
out the world 


BRITISH 

The British Division was established to 
help thfe British people understand the 
United States. It makes available ac¬ 
curate facts and responsible information 

American 

The American Library, located in the 
Embassy, was the first official, general 
library established in a foreign country. 

It is now the principal source in Britain 
of current American publications and is 
open to the British public as well as to 
American Government officials. 


London, finished by the New York office. 
A tribute to the French resistance, war effort, 
and people. 

Tunisian Victory. The Division collaborated 
with Allied agencies in having this film com¬ 
pleted as a joint film of the African battle. 

Joint Film on the Campaign in Western 
Europe. This film, a joint undertaking of 
civilian and service agencies of the American, 
British, and Canadian Governments, is now in 
production. 


DIVISION 

well as American pictures procured 
from all other areas. The Division also 
distributes pictures originating in this 
theater to 65 OWI outposts and State 
Department missions throughout the 
world, enabling them to project the 
story of America and its part in the war. 

and Negatives, June-December 1944 

18,000 prints sent to Fleet Street agencies, of 
which 

3,000 pictures published in London press 

3,000 pictures (approximately) published in 
provincial press 

50,000 pictures indexed, filed in picture library 
62,000 pictures given out by picture library 


DIVISION 

about America. As a government in¬ 
formation agency, the Division works 
under the close supervision of the . 
American Ambassador. 

Library 

Contents 
8,000 books 

10,000 U.S. Government documents and 
pamphlets 

500 subscriptions to American periodicals 

Services 

1,000 (approximately) people a month visit the 
library 


43 






2,000 individual services per month 


350 business firms 

900 organizations 
and societies 

150 British libraries 


1 

I Library maintains 
f regular contact with 
j these organizations 

J 


1,400 items per month go out under a con¬ 
trolled loans system to institutions and indivi¬ 
duals interested in particular subjects 


1,500 spare items per month, mostly received 
by library free of charge, sent out to groups 
and individuals interested in the subjects with 
which they deal 


In addition, the Library is regularly 
used by : 

Most of the schools, colleges, training colleges 

and universities in Great Britain 

British Army, Navy, and Air Forces educational 

branches 

Home Guard 

British Government officials 

Allied government officials 

Editors and staff writers of newspapers, 

magazines 

Educational authorities 
U.S. Government officials 
Members of the U.S. armed forces 


Longe-Range Media Section 


The Section handles long-range activities 
to direct basic information about the 
United States into institutional, educa¬ 
tional, and cultural channels in Great 
Britain. It works in close liaison with 
all U.S. agencies within the Embassy and 
with British institutions concerned with 
public information. 

With the co-operation of the Section, 
H.M. Stationery Office published the 
following U.S. official documents : 

The United States in the World Economy, 
February 3 

Target : Germany. The U.S. Army Air 
Forces’ Official Story of the VIII Bomber 
Command’s First Year Over Europe, March 15 

United States Navy. Report Covering Com¬ 
bat Operations up to Ma/ch I, 1944, August 18 

17th Quarterly Report to Congress on 
Lend-Lease Operations. (Reverse Lend- 
Lease from the British Commonwealth of 
Nations), December 8 

The Section was instrumental in sup¬ 
porting the requests of British pub¬ 
lishers for paper to publish the following: 

A Handbook of the United States of 
America 

Ten Years in Japan, Joseph C. Grew 
The American Character, Margaret Mead 

TVA : Democracy on the March, David E. 
Lilienthal 

The American Troops and the British 
Community, Margaret Mead 

Lend-Lease : Weapon for Victory, Edward 
R. Stettinius, Jr. 

The Section assisted on numerous 
editorial projects of British periodicals : 
Studio, a special number on American art 


Architectural Review, a special number on 

American wartime housing 

New Era, two special numbers on American 

education 

Exhibitions produced by-the Section : 

Young America, pictorial account of the life 
of young people in the United States 
American Housing in War and Peace 
Who are the Americans ? A series of por¬ 
traits of various American types by Honor Earl 

American Artists Report the War 

In co-operation with the Admiralty, the 
Section provided weekly photographic 
exhibits on the war in the Pacific to 
300 forces stations, and general Ameri¬ 
can background exhibits were being 
rovided to 140 stations, 
he Section made arrangements with 
the Tate Gallery, London, for an exhi¬ 
bition of American historical and con¬ 
temporary art. 

The Women’s Activities Unit works 
closely with the women’s institutes, the 
women’s service organizations, and the 
Y.W.C.A. It supplies material for groups 
of business and professional women, the 
Women’s Housing Council, the National 
Council of Social Service, the Women’s 
Co-operative Guilds, and the Women’s 
Division of the T.U.C., as well as editors 
of women’s magazines. 

During the year, the Section worked 
with 215 British youth organizations, 
made 158 speeches to these groups, co¬ 
ordinated regular school broadcasts on 
life in America, and provided informa¬ 
tion on American youth organizations, 
education and social group work in the 


44 


U.S., employment of adolescents in 
wartime, and wartime community or¬ 
ganization in the U.S. 

News 

The News Room was created to make 
available to the British press the full 
story of America at war. The primary 
purpose of the News Room is to provide 
British newspapers and radio with a 
steady flow of background • material 
related to the current headline news 
from the United States. 

Special 

The Division prepares special articles 
at the request of British periodicals. 
Tire following are typical of those 
prepared.: 

Picture Post : 1,000 word article on the 
Philippines 

Asiatic Review : 3,000 words on the Pacific 
War 


The Section handled four speakers who 
had been brought to Britain by a British 
ministry or responsible agency. 

Room 

963 spot news texts issued 

4,196 publications noted in national and 
provincial papers 

1,187 background releases issued 

50 queries daily answered by the news index 
office 

250 trade union journals are sent bi-weekly 
labor notes prepared by the section 

Articles 

Spectator : article on the American electoral 
system 

Courier : 2,500 words on the American 

electoral system 

London Evening News : Profile of Admiral 
Nimitz 

London Observer : Profile of General George 
C. Marshall 

International Industry : 2,500 words on 

Grand Coulee Dam 


PUBLICATIONS DIVISION 


The London Publications Division was 
established to eliminate the time lag 
involved in getting publications from 
the New York office to the continent 
and to speed up the production of 
publications urgently needed to meet 


changes in the military picture. Leaflets, 
booklets, magazines, posters are handled 
by the Division. The Division utilizes 
the advice of the governments-in-exile 
located in London in editing publica¬ 
tions for specific countries. 


Booklets 

The following booklets which are or will be sold in the liberated countries deal with 
important war developments, and tell the story of America and the part it has played. 


French and Dutch 

Booklet 


My Album .. 

The Second Armored Division . 

The Liberation of Paris. 

The 16th Lend-Lease Report to Congress 

History of a Friendship (a) . 

Cinema . 

U. S. War Aims (a) . 

Since 1939 . 

The Fighting Merchant Marine (a) . 

Progress in the Pacific . 

The Day After Victory (b) . 


Number 

Number of copies 

of pages 

French 

Dutch 

32 

100,000 


20 

400,000 


20 

400,000 


52 

200,000 

16,000 

68 

25,000 


32 

200,000 

60,000 

36 

25,000 


80 

550,000 


36 

100,000 

60,000 

84 

200,000 

60,000 

28 

30,000 

30,000 


(a) Text and layout prepared in New York; produced in London. 

(b) Prepared by the Belgian Information Service; produced by the Anglo-American Production Unit of the Division. 


Norwegian and Danish. Some of the following booklets were written and 
designed in London. Others were written in New York and edited or brought up 
to date in London. Some were printed in London; others in Stockholm. 


45 














Booklet 

Number 

Number of copies 


of pages 

Norwegian 

Danish 

Progress in the Pacific . 

. 80 

40,000 

50,000 

Since 1939 . 

. 80 

50,000 

50,000 

This Is the U. S. A. 

. 48 

40,000 

50,000 

The Fighting Merchant Marine . 

. 36 

30,000 

30,000 

Something About the American Soldier 

. 32 

10,000 


How the U. S. Government Works . 

. 24 

25,000 

25,000 

Look to Norway . 

. 32 

40,000 


America at War. 

. 64 

20,000 

40,000 

Alphabet Primer . 

. 32 

20,000 


Why We Fight . 

. 32 

15,000 

25,000 

American Documents of Liberty . 

. 80 

15,000 

25,000 

Picture Magazines 



These OWI magazines, similar in format to American 

picture magazines, bring the 

latest news and pictures to Europe and 

project various phases of American life. Voir 

and Kijk are both sold on newsstands ; 

Fotorevy is distributed through 

underground 

channels. 




Name 

Country 

issued Circulation 

Voir 

f France 

fortnightly 

425,000 


1 Belgium 



is 

j Holland 

fortnightly 

100,000 

IxljK . 

\ Belgium 



Fotorevy .. 

Norway 

fortnightly 

20,000 

Fotorevy . 

Denmark 

fortnightly 

10,000 

Miniature Magazines 



These magazines were started by the 

British Political 1 

ntelligence Department. As 

the OWI staff increased, editorial decisions were made jointly and 

contributions 

from the American side increased. 




Name 

Country 

Issued 

Circulation 

Det Frie Norge . 

Norway 

monthly 

30,000 

Glas Pobede. 

Yugoslavia 

monthly 

100,000 

(Special large size liberation issue 

in 



preparation) 




Der Wervelwind . 

Holland 

monthly 

(a) 

(Special large size liberation issue stock- 



piled) 




Vi Vil Vinde (b) . 

Denmark 

monthly 

(a) 

Accord (b) . 

France 

monthly 

(a) 

(a) Circulation averaged 20,000 to 40,000. 




(b) Now discontinued. 




Airborne Newspapers 



These miniature two to four page newspapers are distributed by the 

RAF and the 

USAAF. Brev fra Amerika is distributed through underground channels. Production 

responsibility is indicated by initials following the title. 


Name 

Country 

Issued 

Circulation 

Brev fra Amerika (OWI) . 

Norway 

monthly 

60,000 

(Special large size liberation issue 

in 



preparation) 




Der Fliegender Hollander (OWI-PID) 

Holland 

three issues 

100,000 



per week 


L’Amerique en Guerre (OWI) (a) . 

France 

weekly 

300,000 

L’Arc en Ciel — De Regenboog (OWI - Belgium 

weekly 

200,000 

PID) (a) 




Sternenbanner (OWI) (a) . 

Germany 

weekly 

250,000 

Tous les Fronts (OWI-PID) (a). 


weekly 

100,000 


(a) Now discontinued. 


46 




























Digests 

These digest magazines contain recently published articles on political and economic 
developments, science, and the arts. They are prepared by the OWI, the British 
Political Intelligence Department, and a representative of the country to which they 
are sent. II Mese is prepared by OWI-PID. 


Name Country Issued Circulation 

Choix. France monthly 311,000 (a) 

•I Mese . Italy monthly 100,000 

Verden Idag (b) . Norway monthly 

’t Venster (c) . Holland monthly 120,000 

Idag og Imorgen (c) . Denmark monthly 30,000 


(a) 250,000 for France, 50,000 for Belgium, 11,000 for Africa and the Middle East. 

(b) Stockpiled pending liberation. 

(c) In preparation. 


Representative Stories in the Magazines and Digests 


Americans Bomb Japan : story of the B-29 
From Paris to Brussels : a picture story of 
the German rout 
American War Production 
The New Congress 
Toscanini Concerts 
The Battle of the Rhine 
Modern American Architecture 
American Elections 
The Battle of the Philippines 
American Women and the War 
The ILO Meeting in Philadelphia 
Children’s Museums in the U. S. 

DDT Fights Typhus 


Flying Bombs in London 
Murmansk Convoy 
Raid on Regensburg 

Projected New York-Oslo-Moscow Air Route 
The Devil and Daniel Webster, the story by 
Stephen Vincent Benet 
Norwegian Merchant Seamen 
16th Lend-lease Report 
Midway 

American Red Cross 

Profiles of Cordell Hull, Edward Stettinius, 
Henry Kaiser, Henry Wallace, Generals 
Eisenhower, MacArthur, Patton, Bradley, 
Crerar (Canadian), Sir Frederick Morgan, 
Colonel Philip Cochran. 


Books 


The Book Section was established to 
give foreign publishers and booksellers 
a picture of U.S. publishing since 1939, 
to enable Europeans to read American 
books, and to help foreign publishers 
secure copyrights of American books. 
In anticipation of a time gap between 
liberation and the resumption of normal 
publication activities in Europe, London 
OWI has translated and published the 
following limited number of titles for 
France, Belgium, and Holland. 

French (Editions of 35,000 each) 

America : Stephen Vincent Benet 
Into the Valley : John Hersey 
TVA : Adventure in Planning : Julian Huxley 
The Story of Dr. Wassell : James Hilton 
A Time for Greatness : Herbert Agar 
Lend-Lease : Weapon for Victory : Edward R. 
Stettinius, Jr. 

Benjamin Franklin : Carl Van Doren 


TVA : Democracy on the March : David E. 
Lilienthal 

The Navy’s War : Fletcher Pratt 
One Man’s Meat : E. B. White 

Dutch (Editions of 15,000 each) 

TVA : Adventure in Planning : Julian Huxley 
The Story of Dr. Wassell : James Hilton 
A Time for Greatness : Herbert Agar 
The Navy’s War : Fletcher Pratt 
Report from Tokyo : Joseph C. Grew 
Peace and War : U. S. State Department 
How America Lives : J. C. Furnas 
U. S. Foreign Policy : Walter Lippmann 
Tarawa : Robert Sherrod 
The Raft : Robert Trumbull 

The following titles are in translation 
for Germany : 

American High Command Report : Marshall, 
Arnold, King 

The Free State : Dennis W. Brogan 
Thomas Jefferson : Gilbert Chinard 
Boy on Horseback : Lincoln Steffens 


47 








The following, for which rights have 
been cleared by OWI, are now being 
published by a group of Norwegian 
publishers : 

Addresses and Messages : Franklin D. 

Roosevelt 


The Century of the Common Man : Henry 
Wallace » 

U. S. Foreign Policy : Walter Lippmann 

Victory at Midway : Lt. Cmdr. Griffith B. 
Coale 

Target : Germany : U.S.A.A.F. 


Graphics and Exhibits 


The section does layouts and art work 
for the magazines and booklets of the 
Division and a large percentage of 
Psychological Warfare Division leaflets, 
prepares the photographic news posters 
Communique Graphique and Nouvelles par 
I'lmage , creates and installs special ex¬ 
hibitions for larger continental cities 
and produces traveling photographic 
displays for the smaller towns. 

500-750 pictures are collected and edited 
per week 

1,500 photostats made per day 
100 photo copies made per day 

News Posters 

19 issues of Communique Graphique in French 
and Dutch 

2.500 (40x60 inches) per issue 

3.500 (26x39 inches) per issue 

14 issues of Nouvelles par I’lmage 
6,000 copies in French per issue 
2,000 copies in Dutch per issue 

Exhibits. The first Paris exhibit, a 
joint Anglo-American job, opened Octo¬ 
ber 20, 1944, and the following day 
6,000 people went through it. The 
show stayed open 66 days and the 
attendance was estimated at 200,000. 
A small, illustrated booklet was pro¬ 
duced and sold at the exhibit which 
traced the history of the war on all 
fronts. The exhibit was divided into 
the 16 following sections : 

The Battle of Britain and Britain Mobilizes 
The Germans Attack in the East 
The Japanese Attack, American Mobilization 
and Production, Lend-Lease 
The Battle of the Atlantic 


The Turning Point of the War : Stalingrad. 
El Alamein, Guadalcanal, and Landings in 
North Africa 

The North African Campaign 

Sicily 

Italy 

The Air War 

The Russians Strike Back 

Resistance 

Landings in Normandy and the Western Front 
Battle 

Meetings of the World Leaders 
New Weapons 

The War against Japan (with special feature 
on Tarawa) 

Portraits of the Military Leaders in the West 

250 photographs, several maps were 
used in the exhibit. A small explanatory 
text accompanied each section. 

Traveling versions of the exhibit have 
been produced : 8 in French, 6 for 
France, I for Luxembourg and I for 
Belgium ; 3 in Dutch for Belgium and 
Holland. Since the Paris exhibit, travel¬ 
ing exhibits have been shown at : 

Toulouse, December 20, 1944 
Average daily attendance, 3,000 

Bordeaux, December 26, 1944 
Average daily attendance, 1,500 

Limoges, December 30, 1944 
Average daily attendance, 1,000 

Arrangements have been made to send 
traveling exhibits to the following cities 
and towns : Luxembourg, Pau, Poitiers, 
Lyons, St. Etienne, Clermont-Ferrand, 
Dijon, Lille, Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence 
Alby, Montaubon, Cahors, Tours, and 
Angers. 


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